Until The End: Dormant
by Sanity Demolisher
Summary: What creates a monster? Is every villain evil from birth? More often than not, prejudices create the very monsters they fear. But what is set in stone and not? What can be done in the name of love and still be morally good? How many bonds can be broken before they are irrevocably damaged? How long does it take when the world is against you before you turn their hate back on them?
1. Prologue

**Title:**Until the End: Dormant

**Author:** Sanity Demolisher

**Betaed by:** JadeAlmasy

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any Final Fantasy characters and make no profit from this writing.

**Warnings:**Language, character deaths, prejudice, OCs

**Summary:**What creates a monster? Is every villain evil from birth? More often than not, prejudices create the very monsters they fear. But what is set in stone and not? What can be done in the name of love and still be morally good? How many bonds can be broken before they are irrevocably damaged? How long does it take when the world is against you before you turn their hate back on them?

Revised: 8/2015

**Prologue**

**Spring, 5002**

_-__"This child in Esthar could be Ultimecia."-_

"It's hard to believe it's been two years."

Zell started at the voice and glanced over his shoulder. Irvine tipped his head and stepped up beside him in front of the memorial.

Zell grunted in acknowledgment and went back to studying the statue. The Knight stood with his Gunblade stabbed into the base, staring forward with old eyes. His Sorceress was behind him, a hand on his shoulder and wings spread wide. The figures were so realistic that the names engraved at the base of the statue were hardly needed. Even the scar between the man's eyes had been added to the stone.

His eyes traveled down the stone to the plaque set in the base anyways.

Rest in Peace

\- Commander Squall Leonhart &amp; Sorceress Rinoa Heartilly –

4981 y – 5000 y

He looked away, swallowed, and then glanced back up at the stone faces. They were only a few feet above him. The original, near Winhill, was fifteen feet tall but this replica had been constructed smaller to fit inside the Garden.

Finally he glanced over at Irvine, taking in the black attire and grim expression. "You know what gets me every year?" he asked. At Irvine's negative he continued. "We don't even know the day to set the anniversary on."

"Today is as good as any," Irvine replied neutrally.

Zell scowled. "What brought you here?" So far as he knew Irvine had already come to pay respect at the statue earlier that day.

"There's been a sighting of a child with wings," came the reply. Zell's eyes snapped back to his friends' and he felt his eyes widening. The brunette continued. "Someone thought they saw her in Esthar. The headmaster would like us to go over the case again."

After a moment Zell grimaced and rubbed a hand over his face. "Fucking Hyne. Of all the days…" Irvine waited silently.

A girl with wings. Wings meant one thing – sorceronic power.

He'd never really thought much about Rinoa's sorceronic powers until after the war. It was what it was and it had been a huge asset. But afterwards, when it was leaked how destroyed the world had been during Ultimecia's reign of the future, there had been panic. Rinoa had been safe only because she was obviously not Ultimecia, but any sorceress after her had the potential of becoming the tyrant. The fear had only died when Rinoa promised to take her power with her when she died, never transferring it. People accepted that.

Then Rinoa had become pregnant.

It had set off worse panic than before. What would the magic do to a fetus? Was it possible for a sorceress to be _born_? Did the power even affect the baby? Ultrasounds didn't work, just fizzled and died when placed on Rinoa's belly.

It had gone downhill from there. Rinoa got thinner and more haggard-looking each month and Squall was prescribed medication for insomnia and depression. Xu had eventually taken over as temporary Commander for him as he and Rinoa spent more and more time hidden away. Rinoa became practically unbearable to be around.

After her fifth month of pregnancy, when she'd accidently killed her dog Angelo after it startled her, Squall had taken her to the vacation house in Esthar that Lorie had given the gang after the war. Things had gotten better then, with the press not able to get near the couple. Squall's reports on Rinoa's pregnancy said that she was doing better, getting healthy again. They'd thought it was under control.

Until Squall's communication had cut off in the ninth month.

Giving the statue another glance, Zell sighed and turned away.

Not speaking, they left the Quad and headed for the records room. As they passed through the library Irvine nodded his head at the librarian's glance, then pulled a card from his pocket as they came to the back end of the room and a door. Zell stood aside as the long-haired brunette swiped the card through the reader and opened the metal door. Then, hesitating only a moment, he followed his friend in and shut the door firmly behind them.

"Let's get this over with," he muttered and moved to the filing cabinets in the back, walking past four rows of cabinets labeled 'Active' until he came to the 'Deceased' row. Setting himself on autopilot he shuffled halfway down the row until he found the cabinet marked 'L'. Irvine followed and passed him to pull open 'H'. Zell had opened these drawers so many times in the initial investigation that there was no need to read the names on the files anymore. His fingers reached towards the sizable file near the front and pulled it out. Cradling it to his chest he shut the drawer and glanced at Irvine. Irvine closed his own drawer, nodded at him, and they made their way back to the front of the room to the large table.

Zell placed the file on the table and sat down heavily in one of the chairs. "Pictures first," Irvine murmured, sitting down next to him and opening his file. Reluctantly Zell reached for his own and started pulling out the pictures that had been paper-clipped in and spread them on the table.

It didn't take long for him to start to feel sick. These had been ugly deaths and the fact that the deceased had been emotionally close crushed the fact in brutally. His eye's flinched over the picture of the Gunblade they'd uncovered in the ruins of the house and the mangled pistol found in the clearing, but that only brought him to the picture of the corpse half submerged in the shallows of the stream.

He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and focusing on the image. One wing had been torn at the shoulder and sagged, half ripped off, against Rinoa's back. The other, soaked with water, had sunk under the stream's surface. The moisture and blood had stained them a darker color, but he could see even through the film that they'd been grey with splotches of black, not the white they had been when he'd seen them in the war.

It wasn't the dark wings and whatever that implied that frightened him the most however. It was the talons. They looked rather dainty but he'd seen them up close in the autopsy room and the obsidian sharp claws had been stained with blood. The scene had been incriminating enough but they'd done a test on the blood flecks anyways – Squall's.

The torn wing had been shot twice, and there had been two more gunshot wounds in Rinoa's shoulder and leg. The bullet entrances were the approximate size of the bullets in Squall's pistol which had, incidentally, been short four bullets. But no shot had been lethal and the autopsy had shown the cause of death as drowning.

Glancing away from the image he pulled the pictures of ground sections together and flipped through them. There was a lot of area that suggested someone had been down and struggling; some had scuff marks from a pair of boots, some with raked dirt from fingers or in the larger ones, talons. Many had blood soaked in the dirt. Some indicated it had dripped, others showed that it had gushed onto the ground. The faint shoeprints in the dirt had overlapped too much in most to make any sense out of, but he stared at those too. He set them aside in frustration a minute later and turned to one of the last ones.

It was obvious Squall had been lying on the ground a few feet from where Rinoa had been found and the deep scuff marks near where the heels and shoulders would have been showed that he'd been writhing about, most possibly in pain. The blood soaked into the ground underneath the spot added to the gory image but the worst was the Blue Dragon footprints that circled around the spot and the splattered blood trail leading into the forest.

Swallowing his gag reflex, Zell pushed the picture away. "Hyne," he whispered.

The public had been told that the Balamb Commander had died in combat. It was better that way. Blue Dragon's were solitary hunters but when they found food they brought it back to the nests to share. And judging from the sporadic heel marks along the trail he'd been dragged across the Commander had been alive when the dragon had towed him back to its nest.

He breathed in through his nose and reminded himself that Irvine had had Ellone take him back into the last moments of Squall's life. The brunette had never shared what he'd seen but he had assured them that Squall had died before actually reaching the nests.

"Here" Irvine said quietly and passed him a picture of the burned baby skeleton they had found in a freshly turned grave near the house with traces of an inferno spell on the bones.

There hadn't been much to investigate. Father, mother and child had all been accounted for. There was nothing to explain why Rinoa and Squall had been fighting each other but the burned bones spoke for themselves. Lab tests had been spotty due to the charred state but it was clear that the baby had not been born alive; the skull and the sternum were malformed to such an extent that any heart or brain would not have been able to function properly.

They had discovered what the magic had done to the baby after all.

They only had theories but the most believable one, the one they had given the press, had been Rinoa going insane after the stillbirth, destroying the house and attacking Squall. The Commander's Gunblade had been in the ruins - Squall had only used his pistol and he hadn't shot Rinoa anywhere vital. It was pretty clear that he had been acting in self-defense.

Ellone had tried to look further into Squall's past but had been blocked. All she could see of that day was just the few minutes of Squall's death. She'd refused to help after that, saying that Squall had once asked her to not look into his past. She was convinced that he'd done something to prevent her from doing just that in case she broke his trust. The proof that he hadn't trusted her to keep her word and the fact that she _had _broken his trust had crushed her. She'd never lent her powers to them again.

There were too many questions and not enough answers surrounding the case but in the end it had been closed as a tragic misfortune. There was simply nowhere to go to for the answers. There were only two people who knew what had happened that day and they were dead. It had been laid to rest.

Until now.

"You think she did it?" he finally asked, still staring down at the picture of the baby's bones, his mind circling back to Irvine's words in the Quad.

Wings meant sorceronic power. Rinoa had been the last sorceress.

But if there was some girl in Esthar with wings that meant Rinoa had transferred her power before she'd died. "Dr. Odine said the sorceronic power was unilineal," Zell continued. "There's only the one strand of power that can be transferred from generation to generation. It would mean Rinoa transferred the powers to the girl… unless the doctor was wrong."

Irvine looked at him. "You think there's some other strand of power out there?"

Zell sighed and set the picture down with the others. "I don't know, Irvine. Why would Rinoa transfer her powers after she told everyone she wouldn't? And to some child no one knows about?"

Irvine stood and stepped away from the table and started pacing. "Dr. Odine said there was only one strand of power and that as far as anyone knew the power was only ever transferred to females. Squall said that Ultimecia traveled all the way to the orphanage to transfer her powers to Edea." The brunette rubbed his forehead and paced for another minute before he stopped. "Maybe… maybe a sorceress _can't_ die without transferring their power. It was just Squall, you, and I when Squall ran Ultimecia through. There was no female present. She would have _had_ to leave to find a female."

Zell rubbed a hand through his hair. "So Rinoa lied then when she said she wouldn't transfer it?"

"Maybe she didn't know."

And yet Squall had guessed, apparently, if he'd talked to Irvine about Ultimecia's departure from their battle. Why hadn't he said anything when Rinoa had promised to take the power with her to her death? When had he told Irvine? Why hadn't he told anyone else? Zell frowned and thought it over then came to another thought. "Matron didn't die when she transferred the power to Rinoa."

"No, but it was a close call. A near-death experience." Irvine's voice trembled slightly and trailed off. Zell's mood saddened even further. Edea had died the month after Squall had left with Rinoa. Her heart had just given out one night.

Hyne, if only she was still alive. She might have been able to tell them what they needed know.

"Alright," Zell said roughly, pushing the grief back and running a hand through his hair. "Let's say for the sake of the argument that Rinoa _had_ to transfer her powers. That means she had to have transferred her powers before or during the fight."

"What if someone else was there?"

Zell slunk low in his chair. Maybe; maybe some hiker had stumbled on the fight by accident with their daughter. Or had Rinoa gone out and found some female before going insane? But, why the hell transfer the powers to a _child_ in the first place. The damage an unthinking child could do with that kind of power could be catastrophic. Had Rinoa really cracked mentally before the fight?

He clenched the hand in his hair. How the hell were they expected to figure out what had happened? They had _nothing_ to work from. They didn't even know how old this child in Esthar was. "This is useless," he growled. "Speculation is going to get us nowhere. That child is the only thing that's going to give us any answers."

Irvine sat back down beside him. "You know what it means, don't you?" It was almost a whisper.

"Maybe it's a genetic mutation," he argued, ignoring Irvine's low words. "Do we know what Dr. Odine has been working on lately?"

"Laguna Loire has him under guard in Esthar. We can give him a call but I don't believe Odine would be able to do any human experiments without raising an alarm."

Zell let his hand rub down over his face before dropping into his lap. Rinoa had promised not to transfer her powers to assuage the public. Whether or not she had, there _was_ a new sorceress in the world.

He faced the reality. "This child in Esthar could be Ultimecia."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 1: Bones – Candy Bar Creep Show


	2. Part 1: Chapter 1

Revised: 8/2015

**Part 1: **

**Spring 5004**

**Chapter 1**

_-"We can't allow another Sorceress to rule over the world. We _can't_"-_

Squall slowed his walk and breathed out into the cool morning air. It was still a little chilly at the end of Marua but no puff of air showed from his exhalation. Spring was finally showing itself.

"Daddy, come on!"

He blinked and picked up his pace so Chayla could pull him by the hand towards the open fence leading into the neighborhood playground. Apparently even that wasn't fast enough for her because she bounced up and down and tugged on his hand in agitation.

"Daddy's going to sit on the bench," he replied as they passed beyond the gate. "Go ahead and play."

The four-year old pouted at him for a minute, gripping his hand, but then she heard the squeals of the other girls there. She glanced over her shoulder at the playground before looking back up at him. "Don't go away," she said, her expression serious. Then she smiled and twirled around, dashing off towards the slides.

After watching her leap up the playground steps towards two other girls there, Squall moved to the bench on the north side that had a view of the whole playground and sat down. It had been a little under a month since they had moved here but Chayla had always made friends easily and had acquired two new ones the first day he'd brought her to the playground. Emily and Hailey came to the playground every Mondi so he'd begun to bring her once a week as well. By the time he'd sat down the three were already embroiled in a game of tag.

It wasn't long before a woman across the park stood up as if she had been waiting for him. He eyed her warily as she stepped over the wood shavings, heading for him. She was a middle aged woman with dark hair, dark eyes, civilian clothes, and a warm smile. Non-threatening, he decided as she stopped in front of him.

"Hi. I'm Emily and Hailey's mother. You must be Chayla's father; she has your face." She held out a hand and after a moment Squall realized he was supposed to shake it. He did so briefly before tugging his hand back uneasily. That smile radiated from the woman again as she took a seat on the bench, leaving a foot of space between them. "My girls have been talking about Chayla all week so I thought I'd come with them today to introduce myself. They couldn't wait to come out this morning."

He wondered what she wanted. There was a wedding band on her left ring finger and the bag she carried over a shoulder had a paperback book in it. Married, happy, and carrying a third child by the look of the subtle belly bulge. Realizing he was assessing and categorizing her, he glanced down at his hands and then put them in his jacket pockets. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something. "Chayla was excited as well."

The woman smiled. "You're new in the neighborhood right?" she asked, setting her bag down on the bench beside her. Squall nodded, watching the three children play. Chayla tripped and fell once, but in a flash she was up again and after a squealing Hailey. "Welcome then," the mother said and turned slightly to watch her daughters as well in a preoccupied manner.

After a few moments she turned back and studied him. "So young," she murmured. He didn't think he was supposed to have heard. "Well…" She paused, eyes furrowing.

He'd learned enough to know what the pause meant. "Shane."

"Well Shane, my name is Marilia." She shifted. "I was thinking the other day that the girls would love to have a play date with Chayla somewhere other than the playground. I believe we live in the same apartment complex, so it'd be really easy to set something up." Squall looked sideways at Marilia, surprised, and she went on. "I saw you unloading your car that first week." Something shifted in the woman's eyes after she said that – pity - but only for a second. "Anyways, Chayla could come over for a few hours. And my husband and I can cook a big dinner for you two." Now _she_ was assessing _him_, looking him up and down, eyeing the scar down his cheek and his paleness. "I'm sure you could use a good meal."

"I'm fine," he said automatically, shifting his eyes back to the children. "What is a… play date?"

Marilia seemed startled. "Well… it's just when children get together to play. The parent's generally arrange it."

"A play-date sounds fun," a melodious voice said, coming up from behind and then a caramel haired woman collapsed down onto what little surface there was on his other side, her elbow and thigh crowding into his own. Squall glanced at her sharply, recognition and shock slamming through him. She smiled lazily at him then leaned forward to talk to Marilia over him. "You have children then?"

Marilia gestured to the only three children in the playground, and then eyed the new woman warily. "A pleasure to meet you…"

"Alina. I'm a friend of Shane's. He's not very vocal so I do most of the talking for him."

Squall made a scoffing noise in the back of his throat as he tried to decide if moving away from Alina would make them think he was moving closer to Marilia. Marilia gave a surprised laugh at Alina's comment. "Ah, I see." But he could see her subtly glancing between the two of them, questions lingering in her eyes.

Alina nudged Squall's elbow with her own while shoving her hands into her own jacket's pockets. "Chayla would love a play-date. You know she would."

"Lena!" there was a shriek and a mass of black hair and tumbling limbs launched itself at Alina. Alina had to pull her hands free quickly to catch Chayla. Then, settling the child on her lap in a familiar manner, she let the child give her a crushing hug. Hailey and Emily weren't far behind and wasted no time in trying to scramble up into laps as well. Squall leapt up before Hailey could clamber into his, then tried to disguise the reflexive motion by picking the girl up under the arms and placing her where he had been sitting. She grinned at him toothily.

"Lena's here daddy!" Chayla squeaked, craning around to find where he had gone. "Lena's come for my birfday!"

"Birthday?" Marilia exclaimed. "Chayla, is your birthday today?" At Chayla's exuberant nodding and demonstration that she was the equivalent of four fingers old, Marilia glanced up at Squall. "You should have said something." He shrugged, jammed his hands back into his pockets and looked at Alina under his lashes. What the hell was she doing here in Deling?

"Mom, Chayla needs a present." Emily's statement brought his eyes back around and he opened his mouth to forestall their mother from making any promises but Chayla beat him to it. "Daddy already got me some."

Alina was staring at him over Chayla's head, looking him up and down, assessing him like Marilia had done earlier. He glared at her, trying to convey that he wanted her to stop. When she saw she pursed her lips but dropped her eyes.

Chayla was telling Hailey, Emily and their mother that she knew her presents were hidden in the closet but that one was really huge. Talk about presents caused her to want to get onto opening them and so Marilia slipped Squall a note with her phone number and a reminder to call for the play-date before taking Hailey and Emily's hands and leading them back to the playground.

Chayla leapt off Alina's lap, took up one hand and urged the older woman up and over to Squall. Squall let Chayla take his hand too and then the determined four-year-old led them both out of the park to the sidewalk.

Once they were on the other side of the fence and away from Marilia's family, he directed his full attention to Alina. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for Chayla's birthday," Alina replied, looking at him with an innocent expression.

He frowned. "You came all the way here for her birthday?" How had she found them?

"No," she said and laughed, looking pleased with herself. "I live here now."

"What?!" He might have dragged Chayla to a stop with him if she hadn't already stopped and turned to Alina as well. But while his expression was one of incomprehension, hers was all delight.

"Are we neighbors again?" she asked, all thoughts of presents derailed.

Alina's smirk left and as smiled down at the girl. "No, sweetie. I'm living with my sister, but it's only ten minutes away from you."

Squall tried to make sense out of what she'd said. "Why are you with your sister? Did something happen?"

She glanced back up. "I don't know. _Did_ something happen?" She was eyeing him again. "Why did you uproot and leave so suddenly?" Squall shot a quick look down at Chayla who had just opened her mouth and she closed it with a guilty look, hopefully remembering the "discussion" he had had with her. Alina didn't miss the look and she put her free hand on her hip. "Oh Hyne, you're already corrupting her with your secretiveness."

Squall gently tugged Chayla towards him and she let go of Alina's hand so that he could pick her up and settle her on his hip before continuing up the sidewalk. It was his blunt reminder to Alina that how he raised Chayla was up to him. The caramel-haired woman gave a disgruntled shake of her head but let it be. "Well, whatever happened, I couldn't just let you disappear like that. Luckily for me, I was home the day you left so I followed you. Once you'd stopped here I went home to clear some things up and now… here I am."

She had _followed _them? Hyne, he was slipping if he hadn't noticed her car behind him for the five hours it had taken to get to Deling. "I didn't ask you to follow us," he said instead of the curses he wanted to spit out.

"No," Alina agreed.

Alina was a non-threatening looking woman; caramel haired, green eyed, fashionably clothed, with a charismatic personality. She had no fighting or weapon experience. She was just a civilian. Nonetheless, she made him nervous. "So why did you?"

"Because I wanted to."

Squall frowned at her evasiveness. And she went on about _his_ secrets? "You had friends in Timber. And a job."

Alina poked a finger into his shoulder. "You're my friend too."

Squall stared at the sidewalk in front of them. _He couldn't afford to have friends_. The thought was four years old and worn around the edges after Alina's insistent picking at it. She'd been chipping at it for years and now he wasn't sure how to classify her. He'd _thought_ the move had solved that.

"You're my friend too, right Lena?" Chayla asked, peeking around his shoulder

"Of course! The best of friends."

Squall glanced back up. "You should go home."

"I've made my home here now."

He sighed. Hyne's blood, he didn't understand her. The apartment had come into view and he could see her red car parked on the side road they were on.

Chayla squeaked as Squall's phone started vibrating in his pocket and against her leg. Frowning, Squall moved Chayla to his other hip and pulled the device out. The number displayed made him glance at Alina and she raised an eyebrow at him. After a moment of deliberation he flipped it open and held it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"It's me," Laguna said softly. "I'm alone. Can I wish her a happy birthday?"

"Of course," Squall said. Chayla was watching him with avid eyes. "It's grandpa," he told her and watched as a smile lit up her face. She wrapped her small hands around the phone and pressed it tightly against her ear.

"Ganpa! Guess what?"

Squall put his free arm under Chayla again and continued down the sidewalk. Alina matched his pace. "He called last year too," she suddenly said. Squall kept walking. She didn't let him get away without contributing to her conversation though. "Shane," she said and Squall compliantly glanced at her. "Your father calls but he never visits."

There was a question there. "He can't," he murmured.

As Alina's overeager mind puzzled that out he shifted his shoulders, trying to loosen the muscles there. It was true that Laguna had never visited. As Esthar's president there was no way he would be able to leave without an armed escort. He'd only seen Chayla once, just after she had been born.

"So why don't _you_ ever go visit him?" Alina questioned, asking the next logical question. He didn't answer and she frowned at him as he turned up his sidewalk and walked towards the apartment's stairs. "Don't tell me it's the classic strained relationship."

"How do you know I haven't?" he asked her as she followed him to his door. She shrugged, then hovered as he got the key out of his pocket and opened the door, and followed him in before he could shut it in her face. She immediately skipped to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards.

"Daddy," Chayla said poking him in the shoulder as he locked the door. She was holding his phone out to him. Taking it he set her down and she ran over to Alina. He eyed the two for a second before moving into the bedroom.

"Still there?" he asked, sitting on the bed. It gave him a full view of Alina and Chayla in the kitchen but this far away he would have some privacy.

"Yes," Laguna replied. "I heard about the incident in Timber."

Squall grimaced. "What's in the news?"

"Not much. SeeD is trying to keep it from the general public. You're not going to tell me where you are now, are you?"

"No," he said, placing his free hand flat on his jeans and looking at the miniscule scars there. He heard Laguna sigh softly.

_Laguna closed the bedroom door and sighed softly. Turning into the room he started unbuttoning his cuffs but froze as he caught sight of the huddled mass in the corner near his bed. In a second his gun was out and trained on the shadow. When it didn't move, he took a small step to the wall and flicked the lights on. _

_His gun dropped as Squall Leonhart was illuminated. The kid raised a hand to shield his eyes from the brightness and tightened himself around whatever he was huddled around. _

"_Squall?" Laguna asked incredulously then cursed softly at his lack of formality. As the shock reached its full height his eyes began to take in the blood stains and dirt. Worry combined with the shock and he hurried forward. It looked like the young man had been through a battle. _

_Squall watched him with hard eyes as he knelt in front of him. Laguna didn't like the look. It held hard determination that was chased around by a glazed look of pain and deep primal fear. Screw formality. "Squall?" he repeated softly. _

_Squall's cracked lips opened and he inhaled. "You're my father."_

_Laguna fell back, his eyes widening. _

"_I'm your son," Squall continued, "and I need your help."_

_Then he unfurled a little and showed Laguna what he'd been holding._

Squall blinked the vision away, his breath hitching_._ It was happening again. Laguna must have been thinking about it for Squall to get the memory backlash. Laguna's memory. Fuck him, it was happening _again_.

"Are you doing okay? Do you need any money?"

Grateful for the distraction, Squall swallowed and pushed the memory and its implications to the side for later deliberation and glanced around the sparsely furnished room. He'd only been able to bring what would fit in the car, so there wasn't much. He'd had to buy the bed when they'd gotten here. He must have hesitated too long because Laguna spoke again. "I'm going to put money in the cache for you."

"Don't," Squall argued, rubbing his head.

"How are you going to pay for rent and food Sq-" Laguna broke off before the name could get out and exhaled heavily before continuing. "How much did you spend on Chayla today? Where are you financially?"

Squall frowned and glanced back into the kitchen. Alina and Chayla had piled baking bowls on the cabinet top and were now going through the fridge. What were they looking for? "I've got enough to get us through a few months. It'll give me enough time to find something."

"Like what?" Laguna knew the constraints Squall had on being able to work a job.

"I don't know yet."

"Son, please, let me help. If this is all I can do then let me do it. Money's _not_ a problem." Squall looked back down at his hand and traced a finger along the seam of his jeans. If he said yes he'd have some more breathing room. After a moment of silence Laguna spoke again. "I'm putting money in the cache. Which one?"

Squall sighed angrily. He didn't want Laguna to send the money but he didn't want to refuse it either. He crushed his pride down enough to say "The same one."

"Still on the same continent then. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Don't tell me you forgot the cake mix!" Alina shouted from the kitchen and a cabinet slammed. Squall looked up towards the door, startled.

"Is that a woman?" Laguna asked, startlement and humor coloring his voice.

Squall stood up and walked to the door, meeting Alina there as she made to barge in. "I'll go get some."

"The point is that you forgot it in the first place," she accused. She glanced down at Chayla who had followed her and was imitating the older woman by putting her hands on her hips. "Did he forget your cake last year too sweetheart?"

"Thas okay, we had ice cream."

Alina turned back to Squall and gave him an irate look. "I'll get some," he promised as guilt flushed through him.

"Finish your phone call then while we get ready. For Hyne's sake, Shane." She ushered Chayla away and Squall leaned against the doorframe, sighing.

"Shane is a… common name." Laguna commented hesitantly from the phone.

"That's why I picked it," he said softly. Alina watched Chayla proudly demonstrate that she knew how to tie her shoes. He indulged in a little smile at his daughter's thrill for her own accomplishment.

Laguna seemed to be on the same wavelength. "Ah Hyne. Four years old. I wish I had a picture. If I put a doll in the cache will you tell her it's from her grandfather?"

Squall quickly went through a couple scenarios. All came to the same end. If it was discovered there would be nothing to tie it to Laguna, not unless the man wrote a note or was caught which was unlikely. "Don't let it connect back to you," was all he said in the end.

Laguna laughed. "Come now, I didn't last this long as president by making mistakes like that."

Alina was looking towards him curiously. "I have to go."

Cheer fled. "Tell her I love her. Please take care of yourselves."

"I will," he replied and flipped the phone shut before anything else could be said. Shoving off the doorframe he moved towards Chayla and Alina. "Let's go."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina glanced sideways at Shane. The talk with his father had upset him. He would never tell her so but she could see it in the tightness of his shoulders. Maybe the relationship really was strained. He must have felt her eyes on him because he looked over at her.

"Nothing," she murmured and he turned back to listen to Chayla's story about why dogs hated cats while looking for the aisle that stocked cake mixes. But instead of looking away, Alina studied him. He looked worn down. Well, more worn down than usual.

Brown eyes were slightly red-rimmed in the fluorescent lights and there were shadows under those eyes making him look gaunter than he was. But if his face was a little thin, the muscles that his cotton shirt expanded over showed that he wasn't malnourished. She took a second to appreciate the sight of toned maleness then sighed. No, she knew it was only stress and not enough sleep that caused him to look haunted.

His black hair was in need of a cut again too. Studying his hair and face caused her eyes to alight on the scar on his cheek. It was under his right eye and traveled from there down across his cheekbone. There was still some redness to it, so it had to have happened after the scar between his eyebrows. That one was white and faded with age.

He had never told her how he had gotten his scars. She wasn't sure he ever would but she didn't think someone could get those kinds of scars unless they'd been in a lot of battles. A soldier. That was her running hypothesis, that he had been a Galbadian soldier during the sorceress war and had had a sweetheart somewhere. Whatever had happened, the mother was nowhere in the picture – Chayla didn't even remember a mother.

"Will you stop staring at me, please?" Shane said when Chayla took a break from her mile-a-minute speech.

Alina smiled at his uneasiness and looked away. He always got fidgety when she stared too long, like he thought she could figure out all his secrets if she looked long enough. If only. Seeing the mixes she pointed and he stopped his forward motion abruptly to turn down the aisle. She followed, eyeing the pastries they were bypassing hungrily.

It was a pity about the mother. She'd never found any pictures of her anywhere and Shane never answered any questions related to the woman or Chayla's birth.

So, maybe a soldier who'd left the army to raise his daughter? He was only twenty-two so that put him at eighteen when Chayla had been born. Talk about starting fast. But then maybe he didn't know the girl hadn't been on a pill? Or didn't care in the moment? There were plenty of four year olds whose parent's had consummated marriage during the war – ha! and there had been plenty of divorces too once the war had been won. Maybe Shane and his sweetheart had feared the end of the world like hundreds of others and hadn't thought they'd be around long enough for any baby conceived to make a difference.

But the world hadn't ended. It had been saved by SeeD's Commander Leonhart something.

She scrunched her nose up for a second. SeeD. They were a secretive and pompous bunch if anyone asked her. She had seen two once, in Timber on a mission for the resistance. They hadn't done anything except look important and stuck-up. There were stories that that Leonhart guy had come a few years later and helped the resistance but she wasn't sure she believed it.

They also said that he was only seventeen when he defeated the sorceress and that his father was the president of Esthar but that he had never known. Or that he'd been raised in secret in Esthar; no, he'd been raised as a boy-soldier in the military. He'd been in love with Sorceress Heartilly, General Caraway's daughter; the sorceress had him bound in a spell, he'd actually been in love with the evil knight Almasy; he'd never lost a fight; he fought with a sword seven feet long; he'd stolen the position of Commander after killing the previous headmaster; he'd killed the sorceress Heartilly; she'd killed him; he'd killed himself.

There were so many rumors out there that she made a habit of not believing any of them. He'd probably been a middle aged man in command who had taken the credit of killing the sorceress from his soldiers and lavished in an office, staring at his medals.

_Whoever_ the man had been, he had died four years ago and SeeD had become even more stuck-up then they had been before.

Chayla picked out yellow cake to go with the vanilla frosting they had at home and let Alina hold the box while they backtracked to the checkout stations. But she wanted to be the one to scan the box over the glass scanner and put it in the grocery bag as Shane paid in cashed gil.

Alina watched Chayla as she concentrated on getting the barcode just right. Whatever had happened in the past that Shane wasn't telling her, she knew he loved Chayla with all his heart. He had braided her hair that morning and put a sparking butterfly clip in to hold her bangs up on her head. She was always clean and her clothing fit her and while she didn't attend a daycare, Shane made sure to take her out to play with other children. He took better care of her than he did himself.

Impulsively, once they had exited the store, she scooped Chayla up in an arm and linked her other through Shane's. "Now, it's time to party!" Feeling Shane's arm beginning to retract, she clamped her arm in, trapping his against her side and made for his car: a rugged, reliable truck with wheels meant to four-wheel over mountains. Which it probably had, she mused. She had seen the car in Shane's driveway in Timber more than once coated in mud or dust.

She thumped its grey surface when they reached it then grimaced and wiped her hand on her pant leg. It looked like he hadn't washed it since driving all the way to Deling either. "Wash your car," she told him as he tugged away and opened the doors.

"Yea daddy, wash our car," Chayla echoed as Alina ducked into the back to tuck her into the car-seat. Shane, who had slid into the driver's seat, looked back at them over his shoulder.

"Why? It will just get dirty again."

Chayla turned to look at Alina and shrugged as if saying 'See? Daddy has the right of it.'

Alina snorted, finished buckling all the straps and then hopped into the passenger seat. They were pulling out into the street when Chayla spoke up from the back. "Lena, do you really live here too?"

She saw Shane's gaze dart towards her before he glanced back to the road. She turned sideways in her seat so she could see Chayla easily. "Yep. That's right."

"Daddy, you said you don't tell Lena about moving," Chayla accused, moving her gaze to her father.

"Didn't, not don't," Shane corrected, changing lanes. "And no, I didn't tell Alina we were moving." He shot her an accusatory look.

"Don't worry Chayla. I won't let your daddy get rid of me," she said watching Shane.

"Were you trying to get rid of her, daddy? Thas mean."

Shane's brow furrowed and he put his left elbow up on the window so he could lean his head on his fist. "I wasn't trying to get rid of her. We just had to move… remember?"

Alina turned her head quickly and saw Chayla's expression – unhappiness – before it slipped into something neutral. "I remember" the girl said and turned to look out the window. Alina frowned. No girl of four years should ever look that sad… or have to hide her expressions seconds later. What in Hyne's name had happened? She glanced back front in time to see Shane looking at Chayla through the review mirror, his own expression taunt with distress, before he snapped his eyes back to the road and smoothed his own expression out.

Alina sat straight and crossed her arms. Obviously Shane had instructed Chayla not to tell Alina what had happened. All _she_ knew was that four weeks ago his slamming car door had brought her to her window, next door in the two-house condo they shared, and she had watched him drag Chayla out of the car and literally bolt into his own house. She'd gone over and rung the doorbell but they hadn't answered and two days later they were pulling out of the driveway at the break of dawn with the car loaded.

Shane was a secretive and cautious man, but that had hurt. Why would he leave without even a word? _And _leave half of his furniture.

It looked like he was running from something, and that worried her. She didn't know who he would be running from. Some drug-lord out for revenge? An old enemy from his days as a solider? If he was running, it might explain why he so frequently looked ragged and tired.

She didn't like it one bit. Whether Shane realized it, he was her friend and friends looked out for friends. So she had followed him. She glanced over at Shane and mentally nodded to herself. She would help him out of whatever mess he'd gotten himself into.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"This is a nice restaurant," Ellone remarked as she sat down and pulled her chair in before Irvine could get it for her. He turned and pulled one out for Selphie instead. Quistis was eying Zell as he sat back and watched her pull her own in with a smile.

"Money's not an issue," Irvine replied as he took his own seat next to the two blondes.

Ellone picked up the menu and glanced down the length of it. "It's not?" She made a sound upon seeing the prices and glanced back up. "Aren't you doing less missions in leeway of… the other one?"

Irvine felt his metaphorical hackles rise at the mention and sidestepped. "Selphie and Quistis still go out."

"With what Squall left us we can indulge for special occasions," Selphie said, ignoring the atmosphere like only she could and answering bluntly. Ellone furrowed her eyebrows and looked at all of them. Irvine tugged on his black dress shirt and saw Zell doing the same next to him. Quistis was looking down at her plate. Selphie set down her own menu and huffed at them all before turning back to Ellone. "Squall left his money to us in his will."

"His will?" Ellone echoed incredulously.

Irvine had shared her incredulity when they had found the document in Squall's desk. The Commander had been eighteen years old, in the prime of his life. But there it had been, a page long and signed by an official witness.

"It was dated to Rinoa's fifth month of pregnancy," Selphie continued.

"Just before he took her to Esthar?"

Irvine nodded to Ellone's question and then took the conversation back to money in hopes of leaving the other topic alone. "Squall rarely spent the money he earned. The amount in the will was considerable."

Ellone's eyes reddened and she looked down, fidgeting with a napkin. "Do you think he knew? …That he would die?"

Irvine looked away and shuddered at the idea. But… Squall _had _written a will. At eighteen years old.

Only he and Ellone knew the full circumstances of Squall and Rinoa's deaths, that it had been Squall who had held Rinoa's head under the water where she'd drowned - the Commander's vision had been black around the edges and his grip wasn't very strong, but Rinoa had aided him with all her thrashing and sodden wings. And that just before Rinoa had completely drowned Squall had been hit by some magic. It hadn't been the Blue Dragon or blood loss that had eventually killed Squall. It had been whatever magic Rinoa had thrown at him before she died.

He'd never told anyone what he and Ellone had seen, only confirmed the deaths. He hadn't wanted Squall's legacy to be shadowed by the knowledge that he'd been the one to kill Rinoa. It was better if everyone thought the battle itself and the wounds received had killed the two. He'd kept the aching questions of why to himself.

Irvine looked over at Ellone, now quietly dabbing at her eyes with her napkin. He'd cornered her two years ago after the first report from Esthar came in about the child sorceress. Zell had focused solely on the child for answers but Irvine had _needed _to know why Rinoa had transferred her powers and to who. But Ellone had refused to take him back further into Squall's past. The only inch she'd given was when he'd asked if she could look into Rinoa's or the child's memories. The child she couldn't reach because she didn't know her, but Rinoa she had reluctantly agreed to try.

Trying was all they had accomplished. Ellone hadn't been able to find Rinoa's past after the war. After their fight with Edea in Galbadia Garden to be precise. Once Edea had transferred her powers to Rinoa, Rinoa's future had disappeared from Ellone's reach. Ellone would have said that meant she had died but both she and Irvine had seen Rinoa very much alive after that. Something about the sorceronic power blocked her gift.

That could have meant that the block in Squall's past had been put there by a Sorceress – Rinoa. But even that hadn't convinced Ellone to try and force her way past the block that was hiding parts of Squall's past. Squall had become taboo for the woman in all forms related to her gift.

So he'd given up and followed Zell's lead in focusing on the child. They'd combed Esthar, listened to the sketchy witness report, gotten an even sketchier drawing of the child, and in the end hit a wall. There had been nothing. The city was simply too large and the witness too unsure.

The whole thing was too sketchy. He'd hoped it had all just been a mistake.

But then, four weeks ago, there had been another sighting, this time in Timber. And this time there had been a man involved. Irvine and Zell were being deployed to the city the next day now that the paperwork and politics had finished. Teams had been created with strict orders to find a lead this time.

Irvine reached up and rubbed his face. They'd gotten nowhere in Esthar. The investigation had gone cold. And Irvine knew this one would too if he didn't do something fast. The something, he'd decided last night, was Ellone. If Ellone could get past the block on Squall's past, they could figure out how the child was related to the incident.

He wondered at how he might bring it up as they all ordered food and drinks. The waitress looked askance at their black mourning attire but didn't voice the question. After she left with the menus and their extravagant prices tucked under her arms, Ellone leaned forward with a false smile on her face.

"So what have you all been doing? Besides the big mission of course?"

Selphie indulged her change of topic instantly. "Have you seen the new Garden in Trabia? Once we discovered that the Garden's were actually mobile ships, they were able to dig up the base machinery and rebuild on it. Mr. Kramer had some old blueprints that helped as well. It's even bigger than before and they received their second year of new recruits in Augusua."

Ellone shook her head and smiled. "I haven't seen it. I've been working in the Pandora Lab for what seems years, overseeing Dr. Odine's work."

Zell made a disgusted sound. "I don't see how you can work with that man. He did research on you when you were a child."

"Oh, he never hurt me," Ellone responded quickly. "And he's just exuberant. He needs to be reminded of ethics once in a while but otherwise… the man is a genius."

"You haven't allowed him to work on the Time Junction machine have you?" Irvine asked. It was the machinery that Ultimecia would use to create Time Compression. After they had told President Lorie about it, it had been taken out of Dr. Odine's hands and locked up but Irvine didn't trust the doctor to not try to get at it again.

"It's still buried deep in an underground lab." Ellone reassured. "Laguna is the only one with the key and he has no intentions of letting the doctor get near it. Besides he would need more research on me and I'm hardly going to let him. No, he's been studying some captured Thrustaevis. The monsters don't breed you know, there's only those that fall each Lunar Cry and those alone, and so he artificially bred one."

Selphie looked stricken. "Artificially? Like petri-dishes and needles?"

Ellone nodded and then went on exuberantly, her smile less fake this time. "We've never been able to tame any monsters; unfortunately they're all quite mad. But by taking DNA from the creature the doctor has produced a baby Thrustaevis and it's showing none of the signs of madness that the captured ones do. It's actually quite intelligent."

Irvine realized he was staring and stopped. Hyne's blood, a baby Thrustaevis? A baby monster was what it was. But if breeding monsters kept the doctor busy Irvine would leave him to it.

He certainly had a pick of monsters to choose from. The 50 year cyclical Lunar Cry that had hit the Kashkabald Desert four years ago had been close enough to Esthar that the country had been the first on the scene to try and contain the devastation.

The thought of the lunar cry soured his mood. They'd been busy with cleaning up the mess as best they could when XU had called to tell them that Squall's monthly communication hadn't come in. Maybe if they'd responded immediately they could have reached Squall and Rinoa in time. Maybe they could have prevented it all.

"What do you mean by signs of madness?" Quistis asked and Irvine pulled himself away from his thoughts. He looked up and saw that the blonde was interested despite herself. "Are you saying there's more to the monsters than just an instinct to fight?"

Ellone leaned forward. "Yes! Instinct would have been passed through the genes. But the baby Thrustaevis shows no inclination towards aggressive behavior."

"But it was bred artificially," Zell said and frowned. "So, what makes the little Thrust different from a normal Thrust if they both have the same DNA?"

"One was born in a dish and the others fell from the sky," Selphie said with the intonation of 'duh' laced through her voice.

Zell gave her a grimace. "Well why then are all those that fall from the sky intent on killing us all?" He turned to Ellone. "And if monsters never reproduce why are there so many falling on our heads in the first place?"

Ellone shrugged eloquently. "The moon is bigger than this world, far bigger. My only guess is that there are millions more of them then there are of us."

Quistis shared Zell's frown. "But how did they get there if they can't reproduce?"

"We're not sure," Ellone answered. "We have no idea what life on the moon is like for these creatures but anatomically, reproduction does not seem possible. There are no gender differences that we can tell of in any of the captured creatures and if put together for long amounts of time they show no inclination towards mating." She unfolded and folded her napkin, not looking at it. "Perhaps there is another way reproduction works on the moon but on earth here, it does not seem possible." Ellone seemed to droop with this lack of discovery.

Irvine digested all that had been said and brought the conversation back to the question that hadn't been answered. "Why would a bred Thrustaevis show no aggressive behavior while all others do?"

Ellone perked up again. "Ah, well that is what we are trying to study now. I believe it has to do with the fact that it was bred here in this world. It is the simplest answer. Maybe there is a toxin in the air on the moon? I am not positive. But it's given the doctor direction to study the aggression in the creatures."

Irvine noted the word 'creature' Ellone kept using instead of the word 'monster'. She was too kind-hearted for her own good. A Scan titled them as monsters and that was what they were, but he held his tongue. There was no need to be rude. "Sounds interesting," he said instead as their food arrived. He leaned back as crab was placed before him. Zell made a whining sound of anticipation and then dug in as soon as the waitress had gone.

Irvine waited until Ellone excused herself for the restrooms, then after a moment did the same. Zell caught his eyes as he stood but didn't betray his thoughts on the matter. Irvine knew Zell knew what he was planning and that he didn't like it. Zell had never liked using Ellone in the first place. But if Irvine had to be the bad guy to get some answers, he would embrace the role.

He was leaning against the portioned off wall when Ellone came out, fixing the clip in her shoulder length hair. She stopped when she saw him. "Irvine?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked. Her eyes darted away and her lips tightened but she nodded. She knew what this was about. She leaned against the wall next to him and clasped her hands around her elbows. Irvine exhaled a long breath and then went straight to the point. There was no need to jump around it. "We need some answers."

"I won't do it," she answered, barely letting him finish. "Knowing won't change anything."

"It will," he argued and turned towards her slightly in the dim space. "We have to know who this child is."

"Even if I did try, that part of Squall's past is blocked. Or don't you remember?"

"I think if you try hard enough you could break past it."

She glared up at him. "Why would I want to?"

"Ellone," he growled. "Rinoa's body is frozen in a lab in Esthar. I know you've seen the body. Something happened that day. Maybe something happened before that. There's a four month gap of time in which we don't have _any_ reliable information. One clue, _one_, could help us figure out what the hell happened and why this girl has Rinoa's powers."

"What would you do if you knew who the girl was? She's only a child, Irvine."

"She's not," Irvine corrected. "She's a sorceress."

Ellone looked away. "I've never asked because I think I know, but…" her voice lowered to a whisper. "You're going to kill that child, aren't you?"

Irvine's let his own eyes dart away this time. "It's one life against millions." He muttered. "I'll do what I can to prevent a future with Ultimecia in it." He glanced back as he heard her sharp inhalation. "I won't gun the girl down. We'll take her into custody and question her. After that…" He didn't finish his sentence.

He shifted his gaze as a woman came around the corner and moved towards the restrooms. She smiled at them as she passed. Ellone watched her too, silent. The woman must have felt their stares because she looked back once as she opened the door before hurrying in.

He shifted a little closer to Ellone. "I don't know for sure if Squall's past will solve anything, Ellone. I don't. But it's the last place to look. We _need_ some kind of clue about how the child got the powers - if Rinoa transferred her powers or if there's something else going on."

Ellone looked back to him, holding his gaze for only a moment. "I can't, Irvine. I promised him." He could hear the sob she was keeping locked in her throat.

He reached to touch her arm briefly. "Think about it. He _asked_ you not to look. Why would he do that? What was he trying to hide?"

Ellone jerked her gaze back to his and this time there was familiar fire in them. "Maybe he just wanted the privacy," she snapped. Irvine felt a pang in his chest at the snap. "Irvine," Ellone said, leaning towards him. "What I can do… it's inhumane. How would you like it if someone else could have access to all your memories? What if anyone could see all your mistakes and faults? I can show _anyone_. There is nothing you can hide. It's the worst kind of betrayal. It's a violation."

Irvine breathed in through his nose. "It doesn't change anything," he finally said through a constricted throat. "We can't allow another Sorceress to rule over the world. We _can't_."

Ellone turned away. "It may not even be Ultimecia."

"Even if she's not, Ultimecia won't be far behind. She wasn't that far in the future."

Ellone was still looking straight ahead. "His past is not a puzzle to be dissected."

The woman came back out of the restroom but this time she hurried by without looking at them. Irvine tried to smooth his expression out. "I just need what's behind that block. Nothing else."

"You betray Squall's trust by asking this."

"I know," he said and his voice cracked. "Hyne, Ellone, I know. But if Squall was in my position he would ask the same thing. You know he would. I have to find this child. I have to prevent what the future can become. And I have to find out _who _she is to do either."

They stared at one another. Ellone clasped her elbows in her hands and looked away first. Irvine stood silent for a few moments before he shifted his weight and tucked his head down. "Please, just think over it." He said to the carpet.

He glanced up and saw Ellone give a jerky nod before she pushed past him and walked away. He stayed where he was trying to convince himself he had done the right thing.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall pulled the second contact from his eye and blinked as he put the soft lens in its case. He shut it then looked back up into the mirror and his grey eyes. Avoiding the rest of his face he turned, setting the contact case on the cabinet, and moved back into the bedroom.

Chayla beamed at him from the bed that had been one of her birthday presents. They had set it up in the corner and her hands were smoothing back and forth across the chicobo sheets she was under. He padded over on socked feet and crouched to place a kiss on her forehead. "All set?"

"Daddy? Are you mad at Lena?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?"

Chayla suddenly wouldn't meet his eyes. "You didn't call but she came anyways. She came to be with us. But she don't know about…" she glanced up briefly. "about what happened. You didn't tell her."

He settled down on his knees and ruffled her hair. "She doesn't need to know sweetheart. She can still be your friend without knowing about that."

"Why can't she know?"

"Because she wouldn't understand. No one would understand."

"Why?"

"Because they… don't have what you have. They would be jealous, if they saw. They'd want to take them away from you."

"Can't they get some too?"

Squall mouth twisted in a bitter smile before he could control it. "No, Chayla. They can't. So we have to keep it a secret, okay?"

Chayla's mouth turned down into a pout but she nodded. After a second her own grey eyes turned back to him. "But you're not mad at Lena? For comin'?"

"No," he said in reassurance. "I'm not mad at Alina."

"Can we go to her house?" Chayla asked.

"Maybe. But she's living with her sister now."

"Is it a wicked sister or a good sister?"

Squall shrugged. "I don't know. You'll have to ask Alina about her." He tucked a strand of black hair away from her face before getting to his feet and moving to the bigger bed a few feet away. Chayla turn onto her side and closed her eyes as he sat on the edge of his bed to pull his socks and shirt off and then turn the sheet down so he could slide in.

He was reaching for the lamp when arms encircled his waist and a weight pressed against his back. He flinched before freezing. "Finally, a bed all too ourselves," Rinoa murmured. The voice was soft and sweet, the arms a solid weight.

"Daddy?" Chayla had opened her eyes again and was looking at him, waiting for him to turn the light off. She gave no indication that she could see Rinoa's arms around him or the movement of her leg twining over his. Rinoa breathed against the spot between his shoulders and made a humming sound. Then she was gone, like she had never been.

"Everything's fine," he croaked and clicked the lamp off. Darkness enveloped the room and slowly, he laid down.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 2: Broods – Bridges


	3. Part 1: Chapter 2

Revised: 8/2015

**Chapter 2**

_-The future isn't set in stone-_

Laguna wasn't listening to the voice on the other end of the phone.

His ankles were crossed on top of his desk with his shoulders pushing the chair back at a comfortable angle, gazing at the picture that had been sent to his private mobile phone.

When he'd mentioned that he'd wished he had a picture of Chayla, he hadn't really thought that Squall would oblige and send him one. He'd always said it was too risky to allow anything to connect him and Chayla together. Laguna had spent many a conversation trying to convince the man that this particular phone was the most secure in the city - it never left his person – but Squall had kept his hesitancy.

He didn't know what had changed. Had his arguments finally gotten through that thick skull? He doubted it. Squall was such a cautious man these days. But something had changed, because he'd taken a picture of his daughter with his phone and sent it to Laguna's.

The girl was grinning ear to ear and lying flat on a child's bed, her arms outstretched in joy and her eyes sparkling up at the person behind the camera. She obviously loved the new-looking bed.

Chayla had slept with Squall in one bed for the entirety of the time they had lived in Esthar so it wasn't too far-fetched that Squall would have kept her close in Timber as well. It was quite possible this was the first bed she'd ever had for herself. Laguna chuckled softly and ran a finger down the small picture on the electronic device.

He studied the picture a little more, not wanting to close the phone and have it disappear. Hyne's blood, she was so old. He could remember when she was only a week old, small and chubby-cheeked, like it was yesterday. Nothing like the girl in the picture. Except the eyes – they were the same. Big and grey like her father's, and so adorable.

She was four years old now. It was the first picture he'd seen of her; his first look at her in four years.

Why had Squall sent it?

Laguna's brow furrowed as he frowned. His son had sounded so worn out when they'd spoken on the phone, so alone. He couldn't imagine what it was like to have to leave a home so suddenly like they'd had to do twice now, what it was like to have to hide so thoroughly.

Perhaps Squall was just lonely and wanted to share Chayla with someone else?

That abruptly brought his thoughts to the woman he had heard in the background of their conversation. It had clearly been a woman and it was just as clear that she and Squall were fairly comfortable around each other from their tone of voices. She'd called him Shane. Squall had let him hear the name. He could have disconnected before the whole name was out but he hadn't. Something had definitely shifted since they had last talked.

Maybe Squall _was_ sharing Chayla with someone?

He wondered how long Squall had known the woman, and how she'd wormed her way into his life, and if she had anything to do with Squall's change. There was an instinctive worry that crawled through him when he thought of someone else around his son and granddaughter but there was a bigger part of him that was happy Squall wasn't _all_ alone. It had always concerned him to think of Squall raising Chayla by himself.

It also made him feel incredibly guilty. Squall did what he had not, raising his daughter with as much love and care as he could give. The fact that Laguna hadn't known _he'd_ had a child until the boy was already half grown did not matter. He hadn't been there.

He should have gone back when he'd heard that Raine had died. He'd thought it had been a monster attack. It hadn't occurred to him at the time that she could have died from something like childbirth. Even so, he should have gone back. Esthar wouldn't have let him leave easily, not after he had helped them cut all communications off from the world as they struggled to reinvent themselves after Adel, but he could have found his way out; forced open the Optical Camouflage System. But Esthar had needed him. _Thousands_ of people had needed him.

At the time he had thought it more important to stay then to cry over Raine's grave or reunite with Ellone. She was young; she would grow up well under the care of the family who he'd been told adopted her; certainly better than if he had tried to raise her himself. He hadn't known shit about taking care of a little girl.

He had told himself these things and they had gotten him through the first year, and then the second. And after three years, the situation was just what it was and he'd had a duty to occupy him. So, when Ellone had come to him seventeen years later and told him there was a boy named Squall Leonhart with Raine's eyes and face he hadn't believed her. Couldn't believe her, because they had told him Raine hadn't been with anyone else after he'd left to chase after Ellone.

But then he'd seen Squall. And it was so obvious.

He should have said something then, when he'd been staring into the boy's eyes; or later when it was just Squall and him in that Ragnarok hanger. But he hadn't. He'd thought they'd have the time after the war was won. Squall hadn't deserved the emotional pain it would bring him right before he left for battle. There was time enough later. Laguna had told himself these things as well but the time never came. The time was never right. There was too much media; too much distance. Then Rinoa Heartilly had become pregnant and Squall was too distracted, too worried about the baby and Rinoa.

Laguna had done everything he could for his son and new grandchild without being too obvious. He'd paid for most of the medical expenses, firing off 'thank for saving the world' excuses. He'd given them a place to hide away, contained as much of the media as possible, bombarded SeeD with as many missions as they could ever want to cover Garden expenses.

But he hadn't told Squall. Hadn't had the long talk with him like he had promised himself he would. He'd been too scared of the rejection.

Squall had known anyways. Laguna had never figured out how or when but Squall had figured it out. In Laguna's mind that only made his betrayal to the boy worse.

He had never been there for Squall, as Squall was there for Chayla now. He still didn't understand why Squall had come to him four years ago. He understood the politics of the action certainly, but it had been more than politics that had brought Squall to his room that night. He would have thought that Squall would only have reserved hate for him. Instead the boy had allowed Laguna to help get him back on his feet, had allowed the secret phone calls, had allowed the difficult conversations between the two of them; he'd given Laguna permission to send Chayla a gift.

And now he had sent Laguna his first picture of his granddaughter.

Laguna lovingly trailed his finger along the picture again, taking in the little girl one more time. She had Raine and Squall's eyes and face structure but he thought he saw his own nose and mouth there too.

"Due to the circumstances, I see no reason why we shouldn't send someone over."

Laguna snapped his mobile phone shut on the picture and looked towards the much bigger phone in the corner of his desk.

"Good." He said, "The research being done should be shared and as SeeD has worked the closest with us in containing the influx of monsters over the years I would be glad to have one present on the board."

He could hear XU Noviko, Commander of Balamb Garden, shuffling papers around. "I need to confirm with Galbadia and Trabia on their preference but I would like to send Quistis Trepe."

Laguna frowned. "For any particular reason?"

"She's got some of the best diplomatic skills we can offer at the moment. And with circumstances as they are…" she paused heavily before continuing, "I would rather she was active and busy with something concrete. She is also, to my understanding, close to Ellone Callow who is one of the technicians in your labs."

"So she is," Laguna said. He doubted Ellone was all _that _close to Squall's friends, but she did seem to get along well enough with them, especially after Squall's 'death'.

He wondered if she'd ever forgive him for what he'd allowed her to go through, thinking Squall had died. There had been times, when she had wept in his arms for hours, that he'd almost told her. But Squall didn't have to tell him twice how dangerous it was for even one more person to know what had happened that night. It killed him not to tell her, but he'd made a promise and he intended to keep it this time.

"If that's all, then I will get back to you with details once confirmation has been received." XU said. "I should say we can have her deployed within the week."

"That sounds workable. I'll look forward to hearing from you again." He replied then leaned forward to disconnect the line and punch in another. A lab technician answered after four rings and then left to get Ellone when he asked for her. He took his feet of the desk and put his chin in his hand while he waited.

"Laguna?" Ellone said when she came to the line. "I hardly ever get calls from you while down here in the labs. Is there something you needed?"

"How well do you know Quistis Trepe?"

"Quistis? Well enough I suppose. Why? What is this about?"

"The new board member we're bringing in on the research."

"Oh, they want to send her in? I think that's an excellent idea. She seemed interested enough when we spoke of it at…" She trailed off and he could hear the uneasiness in her tone. Most likely she was referring to the dinner she had joined Quistis, Selphie, Irvine and Zell at yesterday for the anniversary.

"Well as long as you're okay with it I'll give the go-ahead." He said, putting false cheer in his voice, sitting up and leaning back into his chair again.

"I suppose it doesn't matter who you pick, really. But I think Quistis has a good head for something like this. I…I know she was close to…"

"If it bothers you-" Laguna began, worry spiking.

"No." Ellone hurried to assure him. "But if it bothers _you_…"

Laguna smiled wryly. Ellone was always trying to look after him, even after all of the years that they had been separated, after all the hurt he had put her through… was still putting her through. "No, it won't bother me," he said and changed the topic. "How is the research going?"

"Well enough," she said, following his lead. "The second test is underway. Have you talked to the air station yet?"

No he hadn't. The new air station was barely up and running this last year, the previous one having been destroyed in the artificial Lunar Cry that had brought Adel's tomb down to earth in the war. "I will," he promised.

They said their goodbyes and Laguna called an aide to fetch Kiros. The olive skinned man was quick in responding. Laguna had only just pulled out the financial files when he arrived.

"Did you agree to SeeD being on the research board," he asked as way of greeting.

"Yes," Laguna said, flipping through the files. "Kiros, I want you to take money out of my retirement funds and put them in the cache." He found the file and held it up for Kiros to take.

Kiros took the file but he didn't look happy about it. "How much?"

"A few thousand gil, cashed like usual." He shoved the other files back into their drawer and turned back to see Kiros eyeing him. "What?"

Kiros shook his head. "You know my thoughts on the matter."

Laguna did. And he didn't care. "I'd also like you to put something else in the cache. It's in a box on my end table. You'll see it when you walk into the bedroom." He'd had Ward pick it up last night since he couldn't go get it himself without his entire guard questioning his sanity.

"Very well then," Kiros said and disappeared. Laguna watched him go and sighed sadly. Kiros didn't always agree with his decisions but at least he was loyal enough to keep quiet about it.

He knew where the hesitance came from; he'd had it himself in the early days. They were aiding someone who might one day repay them with the destruction of the world. He _could_ be making the mistake of his life.

But Laguna didn't think so.

Squall had told him something that night in his suite and Laguna had thought it the wisest thing anyone had said about the whole matter.

'_The future isn't set in stone.'_

Laguna was determined to see that it didn't, and in the process, perhaps, atone for his familial absence.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_The future isn't set in stone_

Squall repeated his daily mantra as he walked from the bedroom to the kitchen, blinking his eyes to adjust to the colored contacts he'd just put in. Chayla was eating her breakfast sullenly as he passed to the cabinet where he'd left the newspaper. He smoothed her hair as he walked by but she had been ignoring him ever since he'd refused to give her leftover cake for breakfast and she didn't look up.

Squall found the number in the ad again and flattened the newspaper against the cabinet as he dialed the number into his mobile phone. "Use your fork," he told Chayla who'd begun picking up pieces of eggs with her fingers. She gave him her half-glare, half-pout look and picked up her fork.

"Hello," said a cheerful voice over the phone. "This is the office of Mr. Blackenstock. How may I help you?"

"I'm calling about your ad in the paper," he said, bypassing the hellos.

"Can I put you on hold sir?" the women asked and then did so without waiting for his answer.

"Why can't I have cake?" Chayla asked from the table, deciding to try her arguments again.

He pushed the paper away across the cabinet. "You've never been able to have cake for breakfast. That's not going to change."

"But I'm four and all growed up now," she whined.

"It's not a matter of being a certain age. It's not _healthy_ to have cake for breakfast."

Chayla sulked. He massaged his forehead against the headache beginning. He'd felt a hint of it earlier but had hoped it would pass. Looked like that would be a no.

"Sir? I'll be transferring you to Mr. Blackenstock's aide. Please hold."

The wait this time was much faster. "This is Fitzpatrick. How may I help you?" an effeminate voice asked.

"I'm calling about your ad in the paper," Squall repeated, leaning over and putting his elbows on the cabinet. He hated to admit it but he was worried; the headaches were becoming noticeably more frequent. He'd have to start buying the bigger bottle of pain relievers soon if they were, to keep up. "About the Tonberry Knifes."

"Ah. Excellent. Do you perhaps have –"

"Is the job under the table?" He interrupted.

"Ah… yes. Yes it is."

"I can get them to you in two weeks. Where's the drop?"

The aide realized he was talking to a veteran of this kind of work and got to it. After details had been exchanged about the drop site and his payment the man tried to edge back towards his clientele script. "Sir, understand that we're not liable for -"

"Yes. Thank you." Squall cut the connection and slid the phone into his pocket.

"What are Tonberry Knifes?" Chayla asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar name slowly. "Do evil guys use them?" She was eating her eggs with her fingers again. Squall walked over, picked up the fork and held it in front of the girl until she pushed her bottom lip out and took it.

"Tonberries are monsters." He told her, turning back to swipe the newspaper off the counter and move it to the pile under the sink. "They use knifes to attack people."

Chayla stabbed an egg. "But you kill 'em first," she affirmed. Squall took the pan, now cool, from the stove and began to wash it in the sink. "Are you going to go kill some?" Chayla asked over the sound of the water.

"Maybe I'll just knock them over the head and steal the knifes."

Chayla giggled and then smashed her fork down on her toast with a "Hah!" She did it one more time before looking up suddenly. "I want to come. Outside the car.

"No."

"But I always have to stay in the car," she complained, the whining note creeping back into her voice.

"The car keeps you safe."

"You don't stay in the car." There was that scowl again. He wondered if it had looked that ridiculous on him when he was her age. The baby fat couldn't help but ruin the intended effect.

"That's different Chayla and you know it."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the adult and know more things. Like how to be safe."

"Why?"

He snapped the water off and set the pan to dry on the cabinet. "Because someone taught me how to be safe."

"Why?"

He turned and eyed her. "Because that's what they taught in the school I went to."

"Why?"

"It was a military school."

"Why?"

"Enough, Chayla," he growled, rubbing at his forehead again.

"Why?"

Now she was just being a brat. "Eat your food," he said before sighing and going to find the pain relievers.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Yes. We have the witness here," Irvine said into the phone, leaning against the railing.

"I want a full report afterwards," XU said on the other end. "You hear me Kinneas? No stalling. I want to know what she says as soon as she's out of earshot."

"Sure thing, Commander," he said. Only when he'd hung up did he grimace. He hadn't known XU much before he'd transferred to Balamb after the war to officially pass the SeeD exam - she'd come across as stiff those times he'd tipped his hat to her in the hallways - but ever since she'd been promoted Commander her attitude had darkened considerably. He supposed taking up the position in Squall's shoes had not been an easy task with the military world looking on with comparisons in their eyes. But he preferred to think that she was just an ass. Really, there hadn't been much to compare. Squall had commanded the Garden during a time of war. XU was running the military's affairs in a time of peace.

If you didn't count the manhunt they'd been engaged in for two years, he amended as he turned back to the café's patio.

He stepped around the railing and strode towards the corner table where Zell was chatting with the witness, a middle aged woman who looked as if she had never been out of Timber. "Do you like living in Timber, ma'am?" Zell was asking as Irvine pulled a chair out and sat next to him. The women glanced at him briefly before smiling warily at the blonde.

"Yes, I've been here my whole life. I took over my mother's glass-blowing business."

"Shall we get started?" Irvine asked interrupting the conversation. Zell sat back and left off the unessential questions. The women, looking cagey, nodded. Most likely she had never had to speak witness for anything.

Irvine opened the file that he'd set on the table before taking the call from Xu and glanced down at it. He knew every word on the white 8 by 12 page but he looked for the pretense of looking. "Four weeks ago you reported to the stationed SeeD, Gregory Douglas, that you'd seen a winged child here in Timber." He looked back up to the women. She nodded. "Can you tell us personally what you saw ma'am?"

The woman licked her lips and nodded again. She was like a machine, nodding at anything he said. She took a deep breath and began. "Well, I was on my lunch break so I'd gone over to the nearby park to eat. It was a lovely day outside, very sunny and warm for this time of year. There was a man and his daughter there."

Irvine picked up the nearby pencil and scribbled on the paper in front of him. They'd assumed there would be an adult with the child, but confirmation was something solid he could use. Zell leaned forward as he wrote. "Were they the only other people in the park?"

"Yes," the woman said and clasped her hands in her lap, visible through the glass table. "The man was sitting on a park bench reading the newspaper. The little girl went over a few times to talk to him, ask him something; like she wanted him to play with her."

"How old did the girl look?" Irvine asked as she paused.

She furrowed her brows. "Three? Maybe? I'm not sure. I'm not really that good of a judge. I don't have any kids you see." Irvine nodded and motioned for her to continue. She cleared her throat. "Well the last time she went over he raised his voice. I didn't hear the words but he didn't sound mean. You know, like a father telling his daughter to go play and leave him to his work." Her eyes slid over the two as if suddenly rethinking her 'you know' before she cleared her throat and continued. "Well the little girl got mad. She climbed up onto the playground top and wouldn't come down. The father went over to stand near if she fell. He'd convinced her to come down when she slipped and fell off."

She paused and looked at them again. "I swear I'm telling the truth," she suddenly said.

Irvine eased back, realizing he'd been on the edge of his seat. Just listening to the story made him feel closer to solving the case. "We believe you," Zell assured the women. "Please continue."

She looked away and then back. "Well, she screamed when she fell. She'd fallen the other way from where the father had been so he vaulted over the stairs to get to the other side. Vaulted! He looked like some stunt man on the broadcasting station. Anyways he just made it, only when he caught the child she had wings and one clipped him on the head and they both fell to the ground."

Irvine couldn't help but lean forward again. "You saw these wings? What did they look like?"

The woman nodded solemnly. "I saw them. I picked up the feather that was left behind." She suddenly looked uneasy again. _That_ had not been in the report.

"May we see it?" Zell asked and Irvine could hear the longing in his voice.

At first it looked like the woman would refuse but she finally turned to dig in her purse. When she turned around again, she set the feather on the table between them all.

It was pure white. Irvine breathed out and picked it up delicately, studying its silkiness and measuring it's against his palm; it was bigger than he expected, running from his palm to the tip of his fingers. "Were the child's wing's proportional?" He asked, passing the feather to Zell.

"Um…Yes? I mean, they matched her size."

"What did she look like?" Zell asked and then drew a piece of paper from his pocket and spread it on the table between them, settling the feather aside carefully to do so. He spun the paper towards the woman. It was the drawing of a girl that they'd had the first witness in Esthar draw two years ago. "Can you flesh this out?"

The woman leaned forward over the table and raised a finger to point. "Well, her hair was black and in two braids." Irvine quickly started jotting down notes. This was a much better sighting than the one in Esthar. "She was wearing blue coveralls and a white tee-shirt."

"She looked healthy? Clean?"

"Yes. Oh and she had grey eyes, like granite. She smiled at me once."

Zell's fingers which had been folding the drawing froze. "Grey eyes?" he repeated.

Irvine glanced at the blonde then looked back at the women. "Can you tell us what the man looked like?" he asked.

"Tall, black hair. There was a scar down his cheek."

"How tall?"

"Um… shorter than you but not by much," she said, nodding at him. She must have been watching when he'd left to take XU's call. He added _5'7 – 6'0 _to the small bio he was making for the child's accomplice.

"What happened after he caught her?"

"The girl was crying. I remember he sat up with a hand over his head where the wing had clipped him. He immediately looked towards me, saw I was looking and turned so that his back was to me and the girl hidden. The wings were too big though, they stuck out on either side. He was trying to fold them to her back. At one point he shouted at her to concentrate." She paused as if letting the memory replay. "He glanced back to me once and I swear he was trying to decide how to kill me." She shivered and glanced down at her hands under the table. "When he looked away I got up and went to hide behind a building."

"Do you think he really would have?" Zell asked. Irvine went over the mini bio compiled on the sheet before him that he'd just made. A scar on the face wasn't a stereotype. But… Well, maybe it wasn't so farfetched. Anyone one raising _that_ child would be dangerous.

"Well, he had that scar down his cheek. And he had a wild look to him." She laughed uneasily. "Maybe I was mistaken. But my gut told me to get away. When I looked around the corner they were gone and a car was speeding down the road."

"What did the car look like?"

"Um… grey. Large. It was one of those big four wheeled trucks."

"And how long ago was this before you sent the report in?"

"I called a few days later."

"Is there anything else you can remember?" She shook her head.

Zell looked over at him the same moment he turned to look at the blonde. Irvine rubbed his chin and then closed his file. "Would you consent to describing the man and child to an artist?" he asked.

"Um… sure."

"Thank you." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled a card out that he'd put in there. "Here. This is our number. We will get into contact with you about the artist. She will most likely want to speak with you this week so that the memory is still fresh."

"O-okay. Um…"

"Yes?"

"It's just… she was a child. I don't know what's going on but… she was just a kid."

"Thank you, ma'am, for your cooperation," Zell said, pushing his chair back and standing. "Our artist will get in touch with you." He stalked off without another word.

Irvine contained his sigh and leaned towards the woman a little. "I hope you understand that this is highly classified information and not something you should be gossiping about."

Her expression turned sickly and she nodded frantically. "Please… I won't tell anyone. I haven't. I understand what's at risk."

Irvine eyed her. Maybe she did. She was old enough to have been alive during the war and really understand what it was about. He nodded. "We don't intend to harm the girl."

She nodded, believing his lie and gathered her purse. He reached for the feather on the table before her hand rose for it. "If you wouldn't mind, we'd like to do some tests on this."

She nodded, more hesitantly this time, and finally left, glancing back once before turning the corner. He fingered the feather, then gathered his file and left the café.

Zell was leaning against their car. Irvine leaned next to him. "You're letting it affect you too much," he said. Zell glanced over with a scowl before refocusing on the air in front of him. Irvine left him at it and pulled his phone out again.

The line rang three times before a women picked up. "Hello Kinneas. What can I do for you?"

"Paige. You know the drawing we had you do with the witness two years ago in Esthar?"

"Yea. I heard you have a new witness. Timber this time? You need another drawing?"

"Yes please."

He gave her the woman's number and she promised to be there in a day or two. "I'll call you when it's done. Will you be in Timber still?"

"I don't know. Just call."

"Alright. 'Till then." They disconnected.

Zell spoke as he was contemplating his phone, wondering if he wanted to call XU next. "I want to know who the hell this man is. Who would be interested in raising a child sorceress?"

Decision made, Irvine tucked the phone in his pocket. "May be a nasty piece of work. He sounds like he's seen battle before."

"Maybe," Zell hedged. "Or maybe the sorceress is just having temper tantrums."

Irvine tilted his head up to look at the cloudless sky. Zell's train of thoughts became his own. "He obviously knows who she is if he's seen her wings. What is he playing at?" More importantly, what was he hoping to gain?

He looked over at a rustle to see Zell staring at the drawing he'd had in his pocket. "Grey eyes, like granite" the blonde whispered.

Irvine frowned. "It's just a coincidence."

Zell sighed and tucked the paper back into his pocket. "I know."

Irvine pushed off of the car. "Let's go see how many residents have moved out in the last few weeks."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina said goodbye to her sister's back as it retreated through the front door and opened her laptop on the kitchen counter. She meant to search for employment but instead she found herself bringing up the Galbadia Army database. She was all the way to the search tab before she paused.

Curiosity had always been her weakness.

But she wasn't doing this just to snoop, she told herself. Shane was in some kind of trouble, she knew it, and she wouldn't be able to help him if she knew absolutely nothing about why.

Shaking her head she typed in 'Shane' and hit search. The database was public. Shane couldn't get mad at her for looking. When the next screen came up her eyes widened. There were at least twenty Shane's in the database! She groaned and scanned the list.

The list included all the Shane's that had been in service in the last ten years. She focused on the inactive Shane's first and cruised her mouse over each name to pop up their pictures. None of them looked even remotely like her Shane. She furrowed her brows and then moved over the four that were deceased. No resemblance there either. She didn't think he'd be in the active section but she searched there too. Nothing. His face wasn't in the database.

Unless he hadn't used the name Shane.

She frowned and sucked at her coffee. Would Shane had have changed his name to… well Shane? If he was running from something or someone… probably.

She made a disgruntled sound. She should have guessed that trying to figure out Shane's past would only open up more questions. But if Shane wasn't his real name… She shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to focus on that tidbit. It got her nowhere. One mystery at a time.

Just for the heck of it she moved to the Estharian Army database. This time the name came up with three results; all in active duty, although there was one name, Shane McGuire, who had no picture. Alina frowned over it. Shane didn't hold a steady job. He never had as far as she knew. He spent his days with Chayla and occasionally he'd take her and his car and disappear for a few days. He always had money though.

Her mind flew with a new scenario. What if he was this Shane McGuire? He could be secretly working for the Estharian army. That could be what he was doing when he left for a few days at a time. But no… Esthar was on a completely different continent. She didn't know where he'd come from originally but he'd been in Timber for two years before moving here. He'd have to report in Esthar city itself occasionally even if he was posted elsewhere. No, it didn't seem plausible. Esthar was too far away.

What other armies were there?

SeeD

She pulled up the website but there was no database available. That was… odd. Didn't that go against some public right or something? She scowled, sipped coffee, and scowled some more.

That had gotten her absolutely nowhere.

She picked up the phone and dialed Shane's phone. "Yes?" he said once he'd picked up.

"Don't sound so grumpy. The nice thing to say is 'hello'. For all you know it could be some President calling you. And all you would have said was 'yes'."

There was a pause that went on a second longer than it should have before he answered again. "I know your number."

"So you only say that when it's me?"

"What did you call for?"

Alina rolled her eyes. "How would you and Chayla like to go to the zoo today?"

"The zoo?" he repeated as if he were testing the word out and found it wasn't to his liking.

"You do know what a zoo is, don't you?"

Shane wasn't even listening. She could hear him talking to Chayla in the background. "Stop it. You know that isn't acceptable."

She cleared her throat. "Sounds like a rough day. Why don't I come pick the two of you up and we'll go. My treat."

"That's fine," Shane said, not sounding like it was fine at all before he disconnected.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Have you never been to a zoo before?" she asked, holding back laughter. Shane eyed the cat looking back through the glass then glanced at her before shrugging. "What does that mean?" She asked. "I don't speak the male grunts-and-shrugs language."

"No," he said.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked. His look was enough of an answer. He took a step away from the glass partitioning the cat species away from the public and crossed his arms.

Chayla had her face and hands pressed to the glass. "You're not going to kill these are you?"

Alina's arm froze where it was reaching for her purse.

"No. I only kill monsters. These aren't monsters." Shane glanced sideways at her as he said this as if wanting to verify that yes, these weren't actually monsters.

"That's right," she said, reaching for her purse again. "These aren't monsters. These animals come from the wild but we've put them in zoos like these to keep them away from the actual monsters. They were eating them all."

"If we put 'em in zoos, what do the monsters eat now?" Chayla asked.

Alina didn't answer right away. Chayla's question had been an intelligent one; one that Alina had never thought of. "Well," she said. "I don't know."

"Each other."

Alina jerked her head towards Shane. "What?"

"They eat each other," he repeated.

She felt her face twist. "Eww. That's disgusting."

"It's just another animal."

"Monster, daddy. Not a animal." Chayla cut in.

"They're not really that different," he said, pushing his hands into his pockets and walking a few steps to the side to look into the next exhibit. "They're just from different worlds."

"And one does nothing but kill people," Alina reported back to him.

He stepped back from the glass he was looking through. "Some men do nothing but kill people too but we still classify them as human."

Alina put a hand on her hip. "Well…" But she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Come on," Chayla said, reaching up and taking her wrist. "I want to see more."

She let Chayla march her down the paved walkway and Shane followed, glancing back at the exhibits they were leaving behind. "You've really never been to a zoo before?" she asked him as they walked.

He glanced at her before looking away. "Should I have?"

"Well… Most school's take classes to the zoo. It's like a mandatory fieldtrip."

He hmmed. "I guess mine didn't."

"What school _did_ you go to?" she asked. He glanced at her again as if he could tell that she was fishing and didn't answer. She huffed out her breath. Man that had been the _easy_ question.

The rest of their trip through the zoo was mostly uneventful. He asked if she had found a job yet; she replied in a negative. She asked if he had called Marila back about the play date; his grimace suggested a negative. Mostly Chayla asked a million questions about the animals and Alina answered to the best of her ability.

After an hour or so, when they were looking for the food court, they came across a dog on a leash trotting before a couple. That wasn't weird; the zoo didn't prohibit dogs as long as they were on leashes. What _was _weird was its reaction when it saw the three of them. Its fur puffed up and it started to _growl_ at them. Chayla edged over to Shane and gripped his pants leg in one hand. Shane himself was eyeing the dog warily but he kept Chayla moving.

The couple was confused as well. They apologized as Shane steered Alina and Chayla to the side. Chayla leaned out a little to stick her tongue out at the dog and it barked at her. "Stop it," Shane told her.

"Well, its not being nice to _us_," she said but stopped. They got passed and the dog edged away, showing its teeth. Alina looked over her shoulder as they walked away. The further they got the more the dog calmed until it shook its fur down and trotted ahead of its owners again. "That was weird," she muttered. Shane was looking back as well, with an expression of… worry? He saw her looking at him and turned to face forward again, his shoulders just the tiniest bit hunched.

When they stopped at the food court for some food, Alina decided to pounce. "What did Chayla mean about you killing monsters?"

She was getting better at reading him. He didn't seem to move but she could tell he was tensing up. Slowly he turned from the people he had been watching and looked at her. Chayla put another fry in her mouth and when Shane didn't answer right away she swallowed and happily did it for him. "Daddy saves people! He goes and kills monsters when there's lots around. Sometimes he finds things for people. He's gonna get Ton-Tonberry Knifes this time."

"Tonberry Knifes?" Alina repeated, her eyes tennis balling between Chayla and Shane. Shane looked pained as his gaze shifted beyond her shoulder. She had read the ad about the Tonberry Knifes in the newspaper that morning; temporary work. Apparently they could be melted down and used in medicines. She'd done her studying on monsters though; Tonberries were viscous. There were not very many people she knew who would take a job like that, even for the outrageous wages offered for it.

But she didn't know of anyone else who might be on the run either. Maybe Shane _couldn't _get a regular job? The whole leaving no trace thing. Or maybe he just preferred that kind of work?

Was this what Shane did? Take temporary work when he could? Was that what he'd been doing in Timber when he took his car and left for a few days every once in a while? He killed monsters? No wonder the zoo unnerved him.

"Tonberry Knifes," she said again. "So you do work then." Shane's eyes slid to hers like she hoped they would. "That must be quite a lifestyle."

Chayla didn't seem to think so. "I have to stay in the car all the time," she pouted. "Daddy won't let me help, ever!" She glared at her father. He glared back.

Alina snorted then covered her mouth as laughter overtook her. The two turned glares on her next. That made her laugh harder. "Hyne, Alina," Shane said, rubbing his forehead and looking away as if embarrassed to be sitting next to her.

"Sorry," she giggled, forcing herself to get the laughter under control. "It's just… your glares are identical so when you glare at each other…" She laughed again briefly and leaned back. "It was just cute."

Shane eyed her. She grinned at him. "I have a proposition for you."

"A… proposition?" he asked warily.

"Yes. I propose that I come with you when you go for these Tonberry Knifes." She could already see the 'no' forming in his eyes so she hurried on. "I could watch Chayla. A car can only be so safe, right? I won't intrude on anything, I swear. I'd just keep Chayla company. It can't be healthy to leave her in a car for an hour while you work, can it?"

The gears started working. She cheered silently when Shane didn't dash her idea to pieces right away. He was obviously thinking about it. And seriously, by the glance he sent at Chayla. For her part, Chayla was watching him with big eyes, hope practically leaking off her.

Alina crossed her fingers under the table as Shane scrutinized her for what felt like forever. Finally he looked away. "Be at the apartment on Fridi by six."

"In the morning?" she asked, incredulous. He looked at her and she switched her tone around real quick. "Got it!"

Chayla shrieked in happiness and the rest of the lunch break was taken up by her plans on what they could do in the car while 'daddy' was busy. It was a very long list.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

AN: There you go. I hope you like it! Any comments are very welcomed. I love feedback and a little story lovin'. Thanks for reading!

Until the End Playlist, Song 3: Thousand Foot Crutch – War of Change


	4. Part 1: Chapter 3

Revised: 8/2015

**Chapter 3**

_-"I can save her"-_

Irvine stared up at the condo before him, fingering the key that the landlord had given him. It was the only house in town that had been deserted in the correct time frame. The landlord had said that the man and child had lived on the left side so Irvine focused on that one.

He was still staring at it when Zell pulled into the driveway in the black car they'd rented. "Nothing," he said when he got out. "There was no forwarding address left at the post office."

"Of course not," Irvine said, sighing. They'd known there wouldn't be one, but they had to check; just in case. He held the key in his hand up and nodded towards the condo. Zell followed him up the small walkway to the door and Irvine unlocked it. "The landlord said there are still some things left," he commented and then opened the door.

They both peeked in. "_Some_ things?" Zell asked, and stepped inside. The room in front of them didn't seem deserted. There was a loveseat and a chair in the center of the room with a coffee table in front of them. There was even one leather coaster still placed on the low table. A brief glance at the three walled kitchen in the back showed a small table.

They entered the place and Irvine walked into the kitchen and opened a cupboard. Empty. He opened a few more. All of the food was gone as were most of the cooking supplies. Zell called out from the bedroom "No clothes or sheets anywhere, but the bed's still here."

Irvine frowned and leaned a hip against a counter, looking out over the opening above the sink into the living room as Zell came back into the main room. "All the big furniture was left."

Zell picked up the leather coaster. "And the unessential's. Probably didn't have enough room in the car they left in."

"He left quickly." Irvine muttered, frustrated. He didn't know why the half-full house upset him but it did, more than an empty house would have.

"There was too much media from the Esthar sighting," Zell added, putting the coaster down and crossing his arms with a frown. "He knows we're after him. And if he knows what she is…" the frown on his face deepened. "Do you think he knows _who_ she is… or could be?"

Irvine watched Zell. "Maybe. He knows she's a sorceress."

"Why," Zell muttered, more to himself than aloud.

_Why does he protect her, _Irvine finished for Zell in his head. _What does he get out of it?_

Irvine looked down at the manila folder in his hands, then moved out of the kitchenette and strode to the couch. He sat, and opened the folder on the condo's occupants, flipping through the paperwork on the move-in/move-out inspections, utilizes and tenant rules until he came across the lease agreement form. He scrutinized it with Zell looking over his shoulder.

Shane Guile, one dependent, security deposit paid in cashed gil.

Zell pointed. "Move-in date is Aprua tenth, 5002 y. The sighting in Esthar was at the end of Marua, only two weeks or so before this." So he hadn't moved quite as fast then as he had this time.

Irvine grunted. "This doesn't tell us much." He flipped through the rest of the papers but there was nothing else with any pertinent information. Nothing more than what the landlord had already told them.

"It gives us the name he was going by." Zell said, sighing and coming around the couch to sit down next to him. He picked up the remote that was on the nearby table and clicked the television on. "The last thing he was watching was…" when the broadcasting came up, it was the news. "Hmph," Zell said, clicking it off again. "No surprise there."

Irvine reached forward and plucked the coaster from the coffee table, twirling it through his hands as he stared at it. It seemed so… mundane a thing to have lying out, so… normal. It didn't fit the pattern he'd been picturing.

He frowned as that thought really hit him. What _had _he been thinking it would look like? Talon marks in the walls? Evil diabolical plans scribbled in notebooks? He put the coaster down and rubbed a hand over his face. No, not that. But maybe something in between that and this reality. This room threw him off his game a little. It changed things in a way that he didn't think he even really understood. But he could feel it; a small painful curling in his chest.

He hesitated then shared his thoughts with Zell, hoping that would alleviate the feeling. "I didn't expect it to look so… normal?" Zell glanced at him once before his gaze shifted around the room. Irvine watched him and came to the conclusion. "You did."

Zell shrugged and crossed his arms. Then changed the topic. "You talked to Ellone didn't you?" Zell asked suddenly, not looking at him.

Irvine turned away, but kept Zell in his periphery. "Yes. She said she'd think about it."

Zell looked towards the window, disapproval leaking off of him. "You really think she can break that block?"

"I hope so," Irvine said, ignoring Zell's discontent. "I just don't see how this," he waved a hand around the room "is going to get us anywhere. We can't even say that this 'Shane Guile' didn't change his name when he fled Timber or that it's even the same name he used while in Esthar."

"And he could be anywhere now," Zell concluded warily.

Irvine clutched the manila folder in his hands. "If Squall saw who Rinoa transferred her powers to then maybe we can track that."

In his periphery, Zell turned to look at him. "And I don't see how _that _will get us anywhere."

Irvine frowned, and glanced at the blonde. "We could see who the child is."

"We already have an idea of what she looks like, Irvine. And if the witnesses' are right she would have had to be a baby when the power was transferred. Beside's it's not likely that you will see where she goes once she's gotten the magic. It's not like Squall was able to follow whoever it was that took the child."

"We can confirm whether it was Rinoa who transferred the magic."

"That won't tell us where the girl is either," Zell muttered. He looked away again and then looked back. "Are you sure you aren't just doing it for personal reasons?"

Lips thinning, Irvine looked aside, not sure if he could answer.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina was pulling around the corner to the condo when the black car passed. Normally she probably wouldn't have even noticed it, but the blonde man looking out the window caught her eye as they passed and there was something in that expression that made her stop from immediately looking away.

She saw his eyes furrow at the U-Haul she was driving, and then they were passed each other. She frowned, looking into her side mirror as the car turned around the corner, then focused on driving the rest of the street and backing the huge truck into the driveway of her and Shane's old condo. By the time she'd parked the thing, she'd almost gotten over the chill the whole thing had given her.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and looked over at her passenger. Her sister raised an eyebrow as if to say 'what?' Alina shook her head; she was just being paranoid. She clapped her hands and smiled. "Well, here we are!"

Her sister was looking into the side mirror at the reflection of the condo. "Not a bad place," she commented.

Alina jumped out and walked around the back to open up things. Her sister helped her pull some flattened boxes out and Alina led the way to the two doors at the end of the short sidewalk, digging the key out of her pocket.

Her sister snorted softly when Alina finally pulled it out. "I can't believe that lady fell for your lie."

Alina glanced back and smiled. "That lady loves me. I always baked her cookies when I paid the rent."

"Suck up," her older sister said, shaking her head in slight amusement. "Still… a thrift store worker looking to take leftover furniture off her hands?"

"She'd have called to have it done eventually," Alina said, shrugging. Actually, she was surprised Jenna hadn't called someone about it already. Thank goodness she hadn't. Her sister might have killed her if they'd driven the five hours here for nothing.

They reached the two doors and Alina moved to put the key in Shane's door but her sister's hand on her shoulder stopped her. "Lena."

Alina sighed and looked back over her shoulder. "Yes?"

"You sure about this?" Her sister's eyes were piercing, searching her own for something. They'd talked about this yesterday when she'd been trying to convince Denna to come with her, but she said it again.

"I'm sure."

Her sister's hand tightened on her shoulder. "Don't let what happened before influence you in this, Alina." Alina stiffened but her sister moved on before she could say anything, deny anything. "Being around this man might have more consequences than you're thinking about."

She hadn't told Denna everything in the beginning, but she'd had to have a viable excuse for suddenly ending up on her sister's doorstep. She'd stuck close to the truth and said she was following a friend who was having a rough time of it. That hadn't been enough however when she'd explained that actually her friend had left behind a house full of stuff and she wanted to go get it all for him.

If she'd been able to find someone else to help her do the heavy lifting she might have, but she didn't have anyone else except Denna. And Shane now, but it was his surprise so she couldn't exactly tell him. So she had explained to her sister some of what was really going on. It had definitely been awkward but in the end it had been enough to garner some help. Her sister had been oddly silent about it all. Until now. Now of all times.

"Alina, have you considered that he might be a criminal?"

That startled a small laugh out of Alina. "What?"

"I want you to consider it. If he is, you could be incarcerated for aiding him."

Alina frowned and thought of Shane braiding Chayla's hair; Shane laughing as Chayla played peek-a-boo with him; Shane's distress when Chayla had run away to her side of the condo one afternoon. He was quiet and reserved and secretive, but she didn't think he was a bad person.

She didn't believe it, not after watching him for two years.

"No. He's not," she said.

Her sister didn't let up. "People can surprise you."

"I'm sure." Alina said again. "You'd say the same thing if you knew him."

Denna looked at her for a while before she sighed and let go of Alina's shoulder. Alina pretended that she didn't see the pitying tolerance in those eyes and turned back to the door, shrugging the key into its keyhole. The door creaked a little as she shoved the door open and strode in.

She and her sister stopped a few feet in and looked around. It was startling, the amount of things still in the room. Looking at it now, Alina could see how odd it must look – so much left in a rush to leave. She hadn't really thought about how it would look to an outsider. She snuck a glance at her sister. Denna's expression was stony.

"You realize that if this situation turns bad I'm taking you out of it, correct?"

Alina turned away, lips thinning. Her sister was blowing this out of proportion. "It won't turn bad."

Leaving her sister to brood in the middle of the living room, Alina moved into the bedroom and allowed herself a grin, thinking about Shane's expression when she pulled up with all the stuff he'd just left behind. His new apartment was pathetically bare. He had probably just thrown what he could in his car and blazed off.

He was going to get a surprise. He was her friend now, and friends took care of friends. Whatever had happened, whatever he'd done or not done, she'd help him deal with it. And in the meantime, since she really didn't have anything better to do than to drive the five hours back to Timber on the off chance that his things were still collecting dust, she'd start by making his life a little easier. At least now he wouldn't have to spend hundreds of gil to replace everything he had left behind.

Besides, she told herself, walking further in and opening the closet to find the puzzles and games piled neatly on the top shelf. She wasn't going to let him just leave behind all the gifts she had given him over the last two years. Shane would need to experience many more game nights before she'd be convinced that he could actually lighten up and have fun.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kiros didn't know why he waited; he never had before. But he did, thoughts fighting with emotions.

When the truck came down the unmarked road, he was leaning against his own car, arms crossed. He watched as the car slowed and finally inched to a stop in front of him. It was mostly nondescript but Kiros would recognize it anywhere; he'd been the one who had picked it out from the sell lot. He stared at the man behind the wheel until he rolled the window down and stared back.

The disguise was good, Kiros had to admit. But the build and the shape of the face were still the same, as was the expression. "Your scar is looking much better," Kiros said as a way of greeting.

"Kiros," Squall responded, his tone wary. The man he hadn't seen for two years looked drawn and stressed. He hadn't put the car in park.

"Is the protective dome working as it should?"

Squall nodded. "It's fine."

Unless Squall had been firing missiles at it, the wear should actually be very light. Kiros had made it as impenetrable as possible. Theoretically without Squall's key, or the one around Kiros's neck, to disarm the dome, only a nuclear missile would be able to pierce it. _Theoretically_.

"What are you doing?" Squall suddenly asked.

Kiros refocused on the man and shrugged. "I suppose I just wanted to see for myself."

He saw Squall's eyes harden, but after a slight hesitation he nodded to the passenger side of the car. Kiros picked up the bag at his feet and walked around the car to pull open the door. He slipped in and handed the bag, which he'd always before left in the cache, to the younger man. Squall took it but didn't take his eyes off Kiros as Kiros twisted his body to look into the backseat of the car.

The girl was asleep, head resting on the side of the car-seat she was strapped into, dressed in a green summer dress with shorts and hair pulled up on top of her head in a small ponytail. She looked like an ordinary child, innocent and harmless.

Except that she wasn't.

"You sent him a picture, didn't you?" he remarked, still staring at the girl. Laguna hadn't actually shown Kiros what he'd been sneaking glances at on his phone, but with the way Laguna went doe-eyed when he did, Kiros had been able to make an educated guess.

He glanced sideways at Squall. Squall gazed back defiantly; it was answer enough.

He nodded at the bag in Squall's lap. The man opened it slightly and pulled out the doll that had been lying at the top. His expression didn't alter that Kiros could see, but perhaps his lips twitched? "He's getting too attached," Kiros pronounced. "It's a dangerous game you're pulling him into." Squall's eyes cut to his again. Kiros held them as he said "I'd like you to stop."

Something flashed in the man's eyes before vanishing. "I'll keep it in mind. Thank you for the delivery."

Kiros heard the clear dismissal. He was not surprised by the cold reception. Squall hadn't ever trusted him, not fully. Kiros only had himself to blame in that regard; he had never hidden his disagreement with either him or Laguna regarding the care of the Sorceress now sleeping in the back of this car.

He glanced back at the girl once more, taking in the care that she had been dressed with and her obvious cleanliness before leaving the car. He nodded at Squall and shut the passenger side door. Squall stared at him through the window a moment longer and then reversed the car back down the road.

Kiros watched till the car disappeared, then shook his head.

Nothing but pain and heartache would come from this.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Radeen watched the other patron. He'd been in the bar the last few times Radeen had visited. He'd sit and scribble in a small notebook, occasionally drinking from his glass or scratching his nose. Sometimes he'd run a hand through his long dark hair, or tip his chair back on two legs and stare at the ceiling as he thought.

Today the notebook was closed and the man was still, staring at the table in front of him.

It bothered Radeen for some reason, this deviation from the routine.

He glanced back down towards his own drink, settled between his palms on the table. It was something new and he didn't like it. The one he'd ordered the last time had been his favorite so far. He'd almost ordered it again this time but trying new things was important. There was so much he'd never tried before and it all deserved his attention.

He looked up at the stranger again through his lashes.

The man was now looking around the room, taking in the other patrons with a preoccupied manner as if he wasn't really seeing them but looking through them. Radeen knew that look well.

He grimaced and swallowed a mouthful of the drink he'd ordered. He needed to leave soon to relay the information he'd learned on this excursion. He should have left as soon as he'd heard the news, but doing so without exploring a little more of the city was unimaginable. So he had explored for a while and then he had ended up here, hoping the black-haired, distracted stranger would be there too.

He was there, but he wasn't.

He found himself staring at the black hair. He'd never known hair could be such a color, as dark as the sky at night. Nor the various other colors he'd seen in the last two years, either. It had been a shock, the variety that had surrounded him when he'd first ventured out into the world. The children that mother had brought home had all had red hair like his, and hers was a silvery grey color. He'd always assumed that everyone had red hair until they grew old.

He'd known that he wouldn't know all the right things when he'd first ventured out but he was only now truly seeing how sheltered he had been kept. A surge of anger rushed through him at the reminder, heating his skin, and he reveled in it for a second, content in its familiar intensity.

When he blinked there was someone sitting down across from his black-haired stranger; someone tall with short blonde hair. His stranger was looking at the blonde with a miserable expression.

Radeen's anger melted away, leaving him flushed but cold. He watched as the blonde rejected an attempt at sliding a hand through his. The black haired man hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms, expression becoming even more miserable. They talked for a while, the blonde and his stranger, until finally the blonde leaned in, placed a kiss on the black-haired man's forehead and got up from his seat. The stranger put his face in his hands as the blonde man left the bar.

The confrontation had been odd and Radeen didn't know enough to say what had just occurred, but it had hurt his black-haired stranger deeply somehow, that he knew. Only when the man looked up over his fingers at him with bloodshot eyes did he realize he had been staring. It was the loneliness in those eyes that caused him to jerk his eyes away.

He shoved his drink away and took out a few gil, counting them carefully to make sure he had the number right. He set them on the table then stood and strode from the building, ignoring the corner and the man.

It was past time he was gone.

It took him half an hour to reach the edge of the city on foot in the dark. But once there he was free. He stopped in the middle of the empty field and opened himself up to the power. Immediately his wings coalesced and he smiled as the sudden weight settled. He loved the feel of power running through his veins, the heat it created under his skin. He flapped the grey appendages slightly under the moonlight, then, with a burst of speed, he heaved himself up into the sky.

It wasn't long before he was over the ocean and within the hour was within site of the watery crater that had once been the Kashabald Desert before the last Lunar Cry. Centra was right behind it. He wrapped his hands under his arms for warmth and continued on until he had traversed the mountains and found the canyon leading to the castle.

The small castle was placed far back in the Alnaj Mountains, far from any prying eyes. This region was cold and deserted, and the world's increasing population had yet to encroach into it. As far as he knew, none of the southern fragments of Centra had been inhabited since Centra's destruction by a previous Lunar Cry. But the castle had been up in the mountains and on the edge of the previously huge landmass and had largely withstood the continent's flooding.

He didn't know when his mother had found it, but he'd lived there for as long as he could remember. It was a home of sorts, no matter the fact that he sometimes wondered now if it hadn't been more a cage than a home.

Gerald the butler greeted him when he touched down in the courtyard. Radeen waved him off and stalked inside. Some of the girls were in the side room, sewing things and talking quietly. One looked up as he passed then quickly back down at her lap. The last girl his mother had brought here, years ago. It had been a waste; by that point Radeen had stopped enjoying having new companions brought to the castle for him.

A few men and boys were wandering as well. His old tutor nodded as he strolled by, a few books from the library under his arm. Jaquien, his childhood friend, smiled slightly. Teesin turned around and walked the other way.

They all had red hair. They had all been brought here for him. Once, he had revealed in it; had loved his little world as it revolved around him. But now all he saw was the sadness behind the smiles; the fear and the longing for a life they had been stolen from.

His mother's maid was leaving the room when he reached it. She nodded at him and edged past him on the stairwell. He let her go and stepped into the room.

"She was in Timber," Radeen said as he walked in.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall opened the door softly, trying not to wake the child asleep on his shoulder. She sighed but otherwise didn't move. Nudging the door shut behind him, he flipped the dead bolt and made for the bedroom, dropping the bag on his shoulder onto his bed before laying Chayla on her own. She opened bleary eyes halfway, yawned, and closed them again curling around the doll she was holding. Squall soothed a hand over her hair and gave the doll another glance over.

He wasn't sure if Laguna had guessed that Chayla was in a chocobo loving phase or not – maybe all children went through the phase at this age - but the bright yellow plushy had immediately caught her attention when he'd passed it back to her. The eyesore had kept her entertained if nothing else on the long car ride home.

He stood back up, his knees cracking, and moved to the bag he'd disposed of on the bigger bed. He opened it to the same sight that had greeted him when he'd first looked in at it; _much _more money than Laguna should have sent. He sighed and started pulling the bundled gil out, counting.

By the time he was done he was in the middle of the bed with piles of money surrounding him. Laguna never gave him sheets higher than twenties; they'd both agreed early on that him paying everything with hundred gil sheets might become suspicious. It made for a lot more weight however.

Once he'd divided them into piles that equaled two hundred gil each he got up and started stashing them. One pile went until the loose floorboard he'd found the week before, another in the corner of the highest shelf in the closet, one hidden in the pantry, another under the mattress, and on it went, all over the apartment.

He combined the last three piles and took them to his bedside table. Sitting down on the now empty bed he opened the drawer and pulled a worn box out. He'd meant to just slip the money in and close it again but the glint of metal in the dying sunlight had him pausing.

He hesitated, then opened the box further and stared inside. It had been a while since he'd let himself look at it. Setting the box down on the bed next to him he reached in and took the necklace out, holding it up by its chain so that it dangled in front of him. Griever glinted back at him, twirling slightly until he reached up with his other hand and ran his forefinger over the etching.

_The rain had stopped a while ago, but he was still crying, his head buried in his arms._

_Ellone hadn't come back today either. He'd waited out here forever, huddled around himself in the cold, but she never appeared. Matron had tried to tell him that she wouldn't be coming back but Ellone had always come back before. She had promised him that night during the thunderstorm that she wouldn't leave him like his parents had. He'd heard her tell Zell that too. Zell had cried when they were told that Sis had left but Squall had come out here instead because he knew she was coming back. She had to. She had promised._

_Only she hadn't come back. It had been three days already._

_Had she lied to him? Did she not love him anymore? _

_He felt so betrayed. He sniffled, trying to stop crying._

_When he felt someone sit down next to him on the wall, he jerked up. "Sis?"_

_It wasn't. Instead, sitting beside him on the stoop was a man, an adult. And he said the most horrible thing. "She's not coming back."_

_Squall gave a wail and shook his head but he knew, knew somehow that the man was right. She really had abandoned him. He buried his head in his arms again as a fresh wave of tears clouded his vision and sobs racked his body. She had left him. A hand on his back rubbed soothingly for a minute before retracting. _

_Squall tried to pull himself together. Matron didn't like it when they talked to strangers, and here he was crying in front of one. He wiped his nose on his shirt and rubbed his face before turning sideways to look up at the man, trying to seem brave. _

_The man looked strangely familiar but he couldn't remember where he would have ever seen a man with such long hair before. It was long enough to reach the middle of his back in thin strands, kind of like a girl. But he didn't look like a girl. He had a scar on his cheek. He must be brave and strong to have gotten that scar. "Wh-who are you?"_

_The man didn't answer his question. Instead he said "I have something for you."_

"_Me?" Squall asked, suspicious. Why would the man have something for _him_? He was just an orphan. An abandoned orphan. Maybe the man knew him? Maybe he knew something about Squall's parents. "Do you know me?" he asked hopefully as the man got up and crouched before him. He thought he saw flecks of red in the man's grey eyes. That was odd. _

_The man ignored him again and instead positioned his hand between them, palm up and opened his fist. Sitting there was a necklace and ring, silver and glinting in the wet sunset. Squall stared at the lion head that was facing up from the necklace. _

"_Can you keep these for me?" the man asked. _

_Squall hesitantly touched the lion necklace. "They're yours, aren't they?" he asked, briefly looking up into the odd eyes before looking back down at the metal pieces. "I can't take them."_

"_I want you to have them," the man said softly. He sounded sad, sadder than Squall had felt all week. _

_Squall liked the lions. "Lions are strong," he commented shyly._

"_That's right." _

"_And they live in packs, right? Pack is family, they never leave each other." The man nodded. Those red flecks came and went again. Squall glanced behind him to see if anyone had come outside, but no it was just him and the man. Uneasily he looked back at the man still crouched in front of him. _

"_Are… are you okay mister? You're eyes…"_

_The man looked like he was hurt for a second but then he closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again the red flecks were gone. He pushed his hand forward a little, again offering the ring and necklace. Squall wanted to take them but how would he explain where he'd gotten them? He'd have to admit that he'd talked to a stranger. He chewed his bottom lip for a moment. "Will you be back for them?" he finally asked. "I could just keep them safe for you. You'll come back right?" _

"_Keep them safe," was all the man said, taking Squall's hand and tipping the items into it before standing up. _

"_Wait," Squall called, jumping up as well. "You didn't say if you'd come back for them." The man had already turned around and was walking off. Squall rushed around in front of the man and held a hand up in a stopping motion. "You have to promise you'll be back."_

_The man stared down at him for a minute before a hand came up and ruffled Squall's hair. "You will. Eventually."_

"_What?" Squall squawked, pushing back the wet hair the man had ruffled into his eyes. What did that mean? No one answered._

_The man was gone. _

Squall gasped and blinked at the bedroom wall in front of him.

Hyne's… blood.

He lowered his trembling hand and dropped the necklace back into the box. Closing it, he stuffed it back into the still open drawer and shut it away. Then he slowly lowered himself to the ground and leaned back against the bed as a headache started pounding against his temples.

The first time he'd seen a memory had been two years ago in a park. The woman had been arguing with her husband and had stormed off. She'd tripped over the bench he'd been on and cracked her head open on the sidewalk. He'd been calling the police force when he'd suddenly been the woman, telling her husband she was pregnant.

It had only happened a few times since; once with Alina, a few times with strangers, and the once with Laguna last week.

This was the first time he'd seen a memory of his own.

He grimaced and rubbed his forehead. The first time it had happened, he'd thought it was Ellone. But it was different from Ellone's technique, he wasn't just there for a ride, he _was _the person in the memory.

He shuddered. Whatever it was, he didn't like it. Why was it happening now? Why him?

Maybe it wasn't happening. Maybe he was just going insane.

He sighed and crawled up the bed until his was standing. He needed to sleep. He moved towards the bathroom so he could take the contact lens out, glancing at Chayla once before stepping past the doorway.

He turned the bathroom light on and went through the motions, gently squeezing the lens off his eyes and sealing them in solution. Then he glanced up into the mirror, and fingered some black hair away from his face. He contemplated his darkly colored hair for a moment, frowning, before tracking his eyes downwards. He froze.

The scar… it was in the same place it had been on the man in his memory. He reached up and touched it lightly, before looking up into his own wide eyes. What the hell…?

"You look frightened."

He whipped around.

For a moment he saw two images. In one her long black hair snaked around her head as if she was in water. Her almost translucent skin shined like alabaster, causing her lips to look blood red and her eyes to be dark pools of black. In the other she was like she had been before the pregnancy, all except that snarl to her lips. He blinked and the latter image settled.

He glanced over his shoulder at the mirror but he was the only one staring back out of it.

"You're the only one who can see me, remember?"

He knew it wasn't really her – it couldn't be her – but the sight caused a convulsive shiver to burn down his spine.

First the memory, and now this? Maybe the world was trying to tell him something.

He swallowed and turned back to face her. "Rinoa."

"Squall," she replied, her tone chilly.

She'd come before the memories had, just appeared one day in front of him when he'd been trying to put a half year old Chayla to sleep. She had laughed as he stumbled over the chairs he'd just paced around and almost brained himself on the floor. She'd appeared a few times after that, usually just staring. Only on her last few appearances had she begun to talk to him.

He glanced towards the bathroom door and she was there, blocking the view. She hardly ever moved, just disappeared and appeared where she liked. He gripped the sink behind him. "You're not alive," he finally whispered.

Her lip lifted in a curl. "Of course not. You killed me, remember?" Then she frowned. "But I'm not dead either. Obviously you did something wrong." She was talkative this time, which was unusual.

"I haven't seen you in a while," he finally murmured. Except for the other night when she'd appeared in the bed, she hadn't made an appearance for a few months. The appearance the other night had been so brief he wasn't sure it even counted. That probably really _had_ just been a hallucination. There was no reality where he could have felt her arms around him or her breath on his neck.

"Has it been long?" she replied, looking pensive, then shrugged. "I guess I was busy thinking of ways to kill that demon."

He zeroed in on her in an instant. "You won't _touch _her."

Suddenly she was in front of him. "I can't touch _anything_." She snarled and swiped her hand through him. There was no sensation on his end. There never had been.

"You know what she is," Rinoa said, withdrawing her hand. "And yet you refuse to do what needs to be done."

"I can save her."

"The way you saved me?"

He tightened his jaw. "This is different."

"Kill her," she hissed.

"No," he growled back.

She made a disgusted sound and crossed her arms. "You're a coward."

"Go away," he snapped.

"No," she snapped back, eyes flashing.

Squall rubbed his face with both hands. Hyne, he was fighting with a ghost. He walked through her and left the bathroom, turning the light off. She was there on the bed when he passed into the room. "Something's wrong with you."

He sighed, and continued his path to the bed, facing away from her when he reached it. Thankfully she didn't say anything else as he shut the window blinds and lay down. When he rolled around she was gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Something's wrong with you."

Squall jerked awake. Rinoa was standing in front of the bed, staring at him. He was about to swear or cry or do _something_ when he became aware of the burning in his back. As soon as he focused on it, the feeling intensified.

He sat up with a grunt of pain. It was raining outside; a storm. He barely noticed. The burn was turning into something else; a heavy weight all down his spine. It _hurt. _He caught Rinoa's eyes widening as the crushing weight in his back jacked higher and then saw nothing. He twisted in pain, wrenching at the sheets.

After a few horrible, consuming seconds the pain lessened, leaving him nauseous. He dry heaved and stumbled out of the bed, almost falling, and tried to make his way to the bathroom through a spinning room. He only realized he'd made it when he bumped up against the doorframe. Pulling himself through he caught at the sink's edge and tried to take deep breaths through the painful throb in his chest. The weight _dragged_ at him.

Lightening crashed, illuminating the dark bathroom in bursts. Squall looked up at himself in the mirror with dilated pupils and there behind him, visible only when the lightning flashed again, were the shadows of three immense wings.

He knew those shapes. The bottom pair had been a dark obsidian color, with sharp tips, hardly wings at all; the top had been the darkest of black, demonic and by far the largest of the three. The wings in the middle had been grey with black streaking along the feathers; testimony of the madness that had infested them.

Squall shut his eyes and willed the vision to go away. But the ache in the middle of his back didn't leave. He opened his eyes and the lightening illuminated the shadowy wings again in mockery.

He stared at them.

Adel's

Ultimecia's

Rinoa's

He'd killed them all.

The ache in the middle of his back increased from the unaccustomed weight. He shrugged his shoulders but that only caused them all to flex outwards simultaneously in the semi-dark. In a sudden panic, he lurched for the light switch and shoved it up. Light flooded the room, blinding him, and his back spasmed. Heat and pain seared him. But the weight disappeared, wrenching away painfully.

He blinked and found himself kneeling on the tiled floor. He exhaled harshly and allowed himself to collapse sideways onto the tiles.

"Rin," he whispered. He tried again. "Rinoa." But she didn't come. Didn't tell him that he wasn't going mad.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 4: Red – Ordinary World


	5. Part 1: Chapter 4

Revised: 8/2015

**Chapter 4**

_-I don't know what's right and what's wrong or if there even is a right and wrong.-_

"Hyne, did you get any sleep last night? You look terrible."

Squall didn't even hear the question. He stood on the sidewalk and stared at the U-haul, trying to wrap his mind around the sudden shock. "What the hell is this?" he demanded.

Alina glanced back at the truck before turning back to him with a sheepish smile. "Probably what it looks like. I went back and got your stuff for you since you looked like you were planning on just letting it sit and rot."

For a minute he couldn't speak. "You…"

She grinned and waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "It was easy. I just told Jenna that I was taking it all to the thrift store and she gave me the key. Besides, I know you didn't really want to re-buy everything you'd left, did you? That stuff's expensive."

Squall couldn't wrap his head around it. He really couldn't. She had driven five hours back to Timber and stolen his furniture back for him? Lying about a thrift store? How had she even lifted most of it? What if someone had seen her? Hyne's blood, that town had to be crawling with SeeD. His condo wouldn't be _that_ hard to pinpoint.

He rubbed a hand over his face roughly. He'd woken up with a splitting migraine after a restless few hours of sleep and had just gotten it under control when Alina had shown up at his door. Now he could feel it creeping back.

Alina's voice was soft and hesitant when she spoke next. "I watched to make sure no one followed me back."

He shot a glance up at her concerned look. "What do you mean?"

She studied him for a long moment with her hands on her hips, and then blurted it out "I know you're running from someone."

He shut his eyes and blew out a breath. _This _was why he couldn't have friends. Spend enough time around someone and they started to figure things out. "I don't know what you're talking about," he finally said and turned away, heading back towards the stairwell.

Alina tsked behind him. "Okay, whatever. We can do it your way, Shane, but you don't have to do it alone. I'm your friend whether you like it or not and I'm _not_ going to let you get hurt. You don't have to tell me everything, but I'm going to help."

Before he could even think of a reply a door opened on the second stairwell landing and Marila from the park came out, peeking down at them. "Looks like you're moving in fully, huh?" the dark haired women said with a smile, stopping at the top of the stairs. "I saw the truck from the window."

When he didn't say anything right away Alina stepped up beside him. "Yep! It's been a crazy move."

Seeing Chayla's head at their window and having had enough of the conversation taking place, Squall moved away from Alina and up the stairs. "Excuse me," he muttered, moving around Marila and towards his door.

"Sorry. He had a rough night," he heard Alina excuse him before he opened his door and shut himself inside. Chayla was with him in an instant. "Daddy, what's in the truck? Did Lena bring you a surprise? It's big. What is it?"

He slid down the door until he hit the floor and put his head in his hands, supporting his elbows on his knees "Daddy?" Chayla's exuberant voice got closer and a small hand touched his arm briefly. When he didn't do anything she shifted around him until she was between his knees, and tiny arms went around his middle. "Are you okay daddy? Should I get Lena?"

Squall sighed and let a hand drop, wrapping it around Chayla. "No. I just have a headache."

"I'll get medicine!" She was up and out of his hold in a second, racing towards the bedroom bathroom. He leaned his head back against the door and frowned. Hadn't he put the remedies on a shelf she couldn't reach? Apparently not because she raced back with the bottle of painkillers. She set them in front of him, told him to wait and then skipped to the kitchen. He watched as she opened the dishwasher, contemplated the cups before selecting one and set it gently on the cabinet near the sink before pushing shut the tall dishwasher door. Then she pulled a chair from the table to the sink and climbed up on it, took the glass she had put there within reach and turned the faucet on to pour water into it. Set it down, jump off the chair, grab the glass again, and she was back in front of him holding it out.

He smiled and brushed a hand over her loose hair before taking the glass of water.

"I used that cup yesterday but jus for water, so it's not too dirty," she said seriously.

"Thank you," he said then held up the pills. "You haven't taken any of these have you?"

She shook her head immediately. "You said not to."

"That's right. There are special one's for you. These ones would be bad."

"Cuz they are grownup medicine." He nodded, and took two of the pills, swallowing them down with the water. Chayla moved back to look out the window, standing on another chair she had dragged over at some point earlier. "Do you know what's in the truck, daddy? Is it a present?"

Squall sighed and pushed himself to his feet. "Lena brought us the stuff we couldn't fit in the car when we moved. Stay here and watch out the window while we bring it in okay?" She squealed in excitement as he trudged back out the door, his heart heavy. Alina and Marila were talking at the bottom of the stairs but stopped when he walked out and looked up at him with inquisitive looks.

"Chayla will stay out of the way while Alina and I bring the stuff in," he said, not looking at either of them and hoping that would get Marila to leave so he could talk to Alina. It didn't work exactly the way he wanted.

"My husband and I will help too," Marila said instantly. She passed him on the stairs already calling out her husband's name and disappeared into her own apartment.

He took a breath and marched down the stairs to face Alina again. She must have seen something in his face. "Shane," she said softly "I made sure no one followed me back here. I promise."

That wasn't the problem. What if someone saw? What if the _right_ kind of people saw? Alina might not even know if she had been watched.

"What do you know," he demanded.

Alina swallowed once before responding. "Just that you're running from someone." When he continued to stand there, her eyes skewed to the left. "And that you're not in the Galbadia or Estharian army databases, unless you changed your name. And that you always pay everything in cashed gil."

He sighed and turned towards the truck. It was here. He couldn't do anything about it now. Except kill everyone involved and leave for another city. The instant the thought arose he dismissed it. He wouldn't be able to kill Alina. Chayla loved Alina and he… well the woman had become a fixture in their lives.

He could just leave again. But if Alina _had_ been watched she could be found, taken in and questioned. Did he drag her along with them now?

He could trust Alina and hope that nothing she had done led back to Deling. He glanced up and met Chayla's eyes through the window she was looking out of. She smiled and waved at him through the glass. He knew Chayla wouldn't want to leave another city again. They hadn't even settled into _this_ home yet.

This had been Rinoa's hometown.

He closed his eyes, wondering why that thought had occurred now and not before. Last night, perhaps. He frowned at that thought then had another. Rinoa had appeared two times since they'd come here. Was it just a coincidence?

What was right? What was _safe_?

"Here they are. Shane, Alina, let me introduce my husband Richard."

Time was up. He had to choose. He closed his eyes and breathed in, then let it out and turned towards Marila and the man beside her to be introduced.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Quistis was greeted by a dark haired man when she stepped off of the small plane that had brought her to Esthar. "Welcome," he said, holding a hand out to shake hers before she'd even made it off the tarmac. "I'm Kantos Quillien. I'm here to escort you to your accommodations and then to the labs."

She shook his hand. "Quistis Trepe." She turned but the attendant was already carrying the rest of her bags off the plane. Kantos grabbed the suitcase and bag before she could take possession of them so she shrugged her briefcase up higher onto her shoulder, nodded at the flight attendant, and followed the black haired man to a car that was idling nearby.

Once they had pulled out onto the Estharian roads Quistis offered polite conversation. "Are you a part of the research team, Kantos?"

Kantos nodded but kept his attention on the road. "Yes. I'm one of Dr. Odine's assistants."

Quistis studied him discreetly. He didn't look over the age of twenty-five. Twenty-five seemed young to be working for such a high-ranking scientist, but perhaps he'd had the right connections. That long black hair was the same shade that Dr. Odine's had been once upon a time. Perhaps a nephew or distant cousin's son? "You work with Ellone then?"

"Ms. Callow? Yes. She is very dedicated."

Quistis nodded and looked out at Esthar from the window. She hadn't been back here since the war. She'd never liked how crowded and tall the city was, how overbearing it could feel. But she shook the wariness off, knowing she would get used to it in the coming weeks.

She felt him glance at her and turned back towards him, raising a brow in question. "I've been told to brief you on the research and the labs," he said.

"Very well," she said. "Ms. Callow explained that you were breeding Thrustaevis?"

"Yes. We've successfully bred a Blood Soul and a Cockatrice now as well. Neither show signs of madness."

Quistis furrowed her brows. "Are they still developing?" She'd never seen a monster that wasn't fully developed and raging for blood. The idea of _baby _monsters was very foreign.

"Yes. They are very small. The cockatrice youngster is missing the head feathers – we think those might come in later. And the Blood Soul has yet to form its exoskeletal cranium. We will be monitoring them as they grow to determine any existence of the madness normally seen in the adults."

"You think it might be something they develop as they get older?" she asked, turning to look at him in speculation.

He shook his head. "It's just one theory we are taking into consideration. We are also doing tests on the adults we have in the lab. Drugs, environmental factors, pain. So far nothing seems to lessen the insanity."

Quistis hummed and looked out the window again at the blue streets they were driving over. "And the theory that the moon is a factor?"

"Ms Callow has been working with President Lorie on rebuilding the airstation. We hope to have a crew on the moon within the year."

Quistis let a slight smile tug at her lips and put an elbow on the door. Perhaps, after all these decades, they would be able to learn something about the world. Something worthwhile, something that could help. And as a part of it, she'd be able to do something that had meaning. Something other than watch as the child Sorceress was hunted down.

It wasn't that she didn't understand how important it was to take precautions, to prevent certain catastrophe. But she'd spent too long searching for things that didn't exist, for clues to questions that had no answers. They didn't know enough about Sorceress; the literature was pathetically limited, and Dr. Odine's theories had led them nowhere. She was tired of always coming up against dead ends. Here in Esthar at least she could do some good.

She would miss the teaching, though.

She thought briefly of Selphie, left in Balamb alone to find any and every scrap possible that might explain the half-reasoned thoughts they had after the transfer of the sorceronic power Rinoa had let loose. Perhaps while she was here, she'd see if Dr. Odine had any more texts they hadn't looked through already. Just in case.

"Here we are," Kantos said cheerfully, pulling the car into an apartment complex and driving towards the back. "It's the closest complex to the labs, no more than a ten minute walk. Or if you prefer we can get you a car. The Palace is about a thirty minute walk in the opposite direction."

Quistis stared out at her new temporary home, but her mind was elsewhere. "Do you not use the labs out on the plains?"

"No. It was a laboratory primarily dedicated to the Lunatic Pandora, which was dismantled as you know. It would have cost more to refit it with the proper equipment than to build more space into Dr. Odine's labs here in the city."

Kantos took possession of her bags once again as he showed her to her door and gave her the key to open the door. She did so and walked into the suite. It was small but furnished with brown and green tones. She inspected the bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette while Kantos set her things in the living room.

She liked it.

When she came out of the bedroom she found Kantos sitting on the couch with his hands gripping his elbows. He was looking out the floor to ceiling windows that led out onto a porch looking miserable.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

He jerked towards her and dropped his hands from their huddled position. "Oh yes," he said, standing and smiling. But she thought she could see a falseness to the smile now. She didn't pry however, and let him lead her back to the car.

"On to the labs then," he said as he started the car up. "They are quite big, you know," Kantos commented a moment later once they'd merged back onto the busy street. "Five floors now. There are many sections, each dedicated to different research. The research on the monsters is on the same floor as the wing dedicated to the Sorceronic power of course, floor three. Floor one houses the clinical studies while floor two deals with the business of the city. It used to be where the Optical Camouflage System originated from."

And Dr. Odine's other inventions no doubt, as well. "And the fourth and fifth floor?" she asked.

"Dr. Odine's living quarters are on the fifth floor. The fourth floor houses the research Dr. Odine used to do. I've always thought of it as an attic of sorts, really."

"Research on the Guardian Forces?" she asked. That was the only other research she knew that the scientist has worked on beside that of the Sorceresses and magic.

"And other things," was all Kantos said.

Quistis studied the man again. "You seem to have a good understanding of what goes on. How long have you worked as Dr. Odine's assistant?

He glanced at her briefly. "Five years." Just after the end of the war then.

They'd reached the labs by that point and she saw that Kantos had not embellished the size of the labs. They were much bigger than they had been when she'd last been inside them years ago.

She smiled when she saw the woman standing outside the doors waiting.

"Quistis," Ellone said with a soft smile when she and Kantos had approached. She leaned in and kissed Quistis' cheek before linking their arms. "Come, let me give you the grand tour."

When Quistis looked back over her shoulder Kantos was already walking away, the smile gone again from his face. She turned to Ellone. "An interesting man. Is he related to Dr. Odine?"

Ellone opened one of the glass doors and glanced at her as they passed through. "His nephew."

Quistis felt her eyebrows rising. "Odine has a brother or sister?"

The brunette woman laughed a little at her expression. "Brother. And had. From what I know they didn't get along that well. Niclias was a scientist in Dollet until he died of exposure to the radiation he was researching. Kantos showed up here and has worked for the doctor ever since."

Ellone stopped at a desk at the end of the spacious room and introduced Quistis to the woman there. "This is Quistis Trepe. She's the latest member on the research board. Will you get her her pass, Lillian?"

Lillian opened a file cabinet and pulled out a card similar to the one Quistis saw that Ellone was wearing around her neck, along with a manila folder. Ellone took them and gave Quistis the card who settled it around her own neck. "That card has been activated for the floors you'll need access to. Just hold it up to the door panels." Ellone said then held out the folder. "And this is a report of the tests so far that you can pursue at your leisure."

Quistis took this as well and tucked it under her arm as Ellone proceeded to lead her around the floor, telling her about the facility. She was much more thorough than Kantos had had time to be, explaining each wing and the research dealt in there in detail.

Quistis found herself surprised to find that some of the clinical research dealt in human DNA. "They're looking at selecting certain genes over others." Ellone told her. "Someday perhaps, parents will be able to decide whether they want blonde or brunette children." Another wing of the floor focused on finding cures to common ailments. And so on. The floor was full of people rushing here and there and Quistis was glad when they finally took the stairs up to the second floor.

"Dr. Odine oversees all of these floors?" she asked as they passed window after window looking into spacious labs where men and woman in lab coats moved around, working on machines and computers.

"In theory," Ellone said looking around before gesturing her back towards the stairs. Apparently there wasn't anything beyond the causal observation here that was important. Once they reached the stairs, Ellone continued. "Really he just focuses on his current research and lets each floor manage itself under their heads. They're seven of them and they have to go through Odine for initial research approval but otherwise they take care of their own work. They are part of the science board that meets with Laguna every month."

They reached the third floor and Ellone gave a happy sigh. "_And_ this floor is my home away from home," she commented, leading Quistis down the hall. "Down this wing is our research."

The building was oval shaped and Ellone led Quistis along the inner hallway slowly, explaining each lab room they passed and its purpose. Here was the lab where the adult monsters were tested and there the lab that housed them all when they weren't being tested. Further down was the lab with the artificially bred monsters.

"Would you like to see them?" Ellone asked. Quistis nodded and Ellone indicated that Quistis should scan her card at the panel. She did and the glass door slid open silently. They went in and moved towards the back where the steel rooms were.

They weren't what she was expecting. She wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting really. Kantos had described the differences from the adult ones, but actually seeing the small monsters wandering their sealed rooms was something else. They were clearly babies. And clearly not harmful, she saw as she watched a lab technician feeding the cockatrice while it sat in his lap.

The fact that these small innocent creatures could be bred from the monsters she's spent half her life killing was… She leaned against the wall, feeling a little faint. "This is…," she said, at a loss for words.

"Momentous," Ellone finished when Quistis didn't. She looked at Quistis and smiled in understanding. "I don't know where this will take us Quistis, but it's going to take us somewhere. It's the beginning of something big."

She took Quistis out of the lab and moved further down the hallway, linking their arms again companionably. There was a lab for the breeding, a lab for processing, and a dozen other rooms that Ellone said would be explained if they were needed.

"And here," Ellone said as the hallway curved more sharply "Is the Sorceress wing."

She showed Quistis the multiple lab rooms that dealt in para-magic then moved her on to the labs that contained the research on sealing. Most of these rooms didn't have observation windows looking into them and Quistis noticed that Ellone didn't point out some of the doors on their path. When she caught sight of the door with the red doorframe surrounded by cameras she couldn't hold back her curiosity.

"And that one?" she nodded towards it as they passed.

Ellone looked at it before turning away. "That one holds the crystal that resided in the Lunatic Pandora before it was dismantled. No one but Dr. Odine has access to the room at the moment."

She pulled Quistis along, almost forcefully, and Quistis studied the door over her shoulder with a frown until she felt Ellone's footsteps stutter slightly. She turned back and her thoughts scattered as she caught sight of the door ahead of them and the sign labeling it.

"I'm sorry," Ellone said softly. "I didn't mean to bring you past here. Let's go back the way we came."

"No," Quistis said and drew in a heavy breath. "It's okay."

Ellone looked at her with dark eyes, and when Quistis nodded in reassurance, turned and scanned her card at the door. Quistis followed her in and made herself walk to the railing circling the machinery in the middle of the room.

She looked at the feet first, suspended a few inches from the bottom of the ice tomb. They were bare, small, and the toenails neatly trimmed; like they had always been. The woman had always been so conscientious about her toes.

Quistis sighed and raised her eyes to Rinoa's face. She might look like she was sleeping if it wasn't for the absolute stillness of her body and the deathly pallor of her skin. Her arms were crossed across her bare chest, covering her breasts artfully and her taloned fingers rested against her shoulders.

The talons hadn't disappeared like her wings had in the weeks that had followed her death. It had been more disturbing than perhaps it should have been, but talons did not belong on her friend's fingers. It hurt that the evidence of something wrong had lingered when they hadn't even known something was wrong.

She felt Ellone step up beside her and the brunette let out a sigh. Quistis heard the pain and weariness in it. She looked to the side and studied Ellone's expression. "He asked you to go back into Squall's past, didn't he?" she asked after a moment of observing the emotions flittering over her friend's face. Ellone looked at her and Quistis had to hide her flinch at the pain in those eyes.

Ellone's lips twitched and she turned back towards Rinoa. "Irvine is very dedicated to finding the answers he seeks."

Quistis turned back to the frozen Sorceress's corpse as well. "Yes," she agreed.

"What would you do?" Ellone asked after many moments of silence, still looking at the ice tomb.

Quistis looked away from Rinoa's face to the side were a few feathers were preserved in a solution. "Irvine and Zell are under a lot of pressure. It won't be easy for any of us if they come back with no leads." Ellone turned to look at her and Quistis met her eyes. "And yet, I don't know what I would do," she said honestly. "I don't know what's right and what's wrong or if there even is a right and wrong."

Ellone sighed and turned to look at Rinoa's body again.

"Right or wrong?" she whispered and bowed her head.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina watched Shane from the couch they had set in the living room as he talked to Marilia and Richard by the door. She had almost lost him. She had seen it – his expression – while they had been standing on the sidewalk in front of the U-haul. There had been a terrible haunted look there and when he'd directed it at her for that brief moment it had stolen her breath. It scared her.

What she had said to Marilla was true. Technically she was just helping him fully move his stuff to Deling. But in hindsight perhaps it had been a little reckless. She _knew _he was running from someone. That usually meant someone was after you. It was why she had watched the road behind her so carefully but she hadn't actually thought about it until they were well on their way back. Could she have missed something? Attracted someone's attention? A vision of the blonde's eyes in the black car flashed before her eyes.

She didn't know. And she didn't know what that meant.

She admitted to herself that she might have messed up… bad. Again. It hurt like a knife in the gut and made breathing hard.

The door closed and Shane turned towards the room, putting his back against the door. "Chayla," he said and the girl playing with her princess and knight dolls looked up from the floor. "Why don't you go play in the bedroom so Alina and I can talk."

Chayla looked between Alina and her father for a moment and frowned, like she realized something was going to happen, but she got up and took her dolls with her to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Shane sat down opposite Alina on the loveseat and put his elbows on his knees, staring down at the floor and sighed heavily. She didn't like the sound of that sigh.

"Are you going to tell me to leave and never come back?" she asked.

He looked up at her then sat back into the couch. The bags under his eyes were darker today and there was a tightness in the corner of his eyes that suggested he had a headache. "No," he said. "If you were seen you're already on their radar."

She crossed her arms and huddled into them. "What, then? You leave town again?"

"No," he said again and then he covered his face with his hand, leaning into it. He didn't make any sound. But he didn't look good either. Was he too angry to look at her? Or was he… crying? She looked at the way he was holding himself. No. Not crying, but perhaps something close to it.

Alina bit her cheek and looked down at her arms. She had caused this… this mess. She'd wanted to do something for him, and Chayla had said that 'daddy' said he didn't know when they'd be able to buy new furniture. For anyone else it wouldn't have been a problem. But anyone else probably wouldn't have left it all behind in the first place.

Her sister's words came back to her: _Being around this man might have more consequences than you're thinking about. _Why hadn't she thought it through? She _knew_ he was running from someone but that hadn't really meant something, not then. She of all people should have thought it through. Did she crave this friendship so much that it was blinding her?

She shook her head in disgust. The answer was obvious when put that way.

She joined Shane on the loveseat and leaned into him. "I'm sorry," she mumbled into his shoulder. After a moment his arm came around her shoulders in a comforting manner and he turned his head so that his hand was cradling his cheek and not his face. "You didn't really have any friends in Timber did you?" he asked.

She looked away, leaned into him a little more. "No. Not really."

"Who helped you move the furniture?"

"My sister." She wondered if she should mention that Denna had demanded to meet Shane as compensation. No, it probably wasn't the best time. She peeked up at Shane but he was looking towards the window now, his hand now under his chin. "Shane?"

He didn't speak for a while but she could tell he was working up to it so she stayed quiet. Eventually the words came. "If it involves Chayla or I, ask me first. No negotiations."

"Okay," she said quickly.

"If you think someone is watching or stalking you, call me immediately."

"Okay."

He looked at her suddenly, staring at her intensely. "And if I tell you to do something, you will do it without question."

She pursed her lips and sat up a little. He just looked at her as if to say 'you know what I mean'. She rolled her eyes and slumped back into him. "Alright."

They didn't speak for a while after that. She just laid against him until a question came to mind. "Are you still leaving Fridi? Am I still invited?"

She looked up to see him watching her. "Yes." he finally said. That was all.

Feeling a little better she pursued her lips at him. "How are we actually getting to these Tonberries? Don't they live on Centra?"

He was still looking at her. "Fisherman's Horizon has boats that'll take the car and us over the water."

She gaped. "Fisherman's Horizon is eight hours away!"

Shane blinked, nodded and moved his eyes away to the window again. "Yes. And it'll take another four to cross the ocean."

"And you do this often?" She asked incredulously, sitting up. "Drive all over the world killing monsters?"

He shook his head. "No. Usually I only take work that's near. But sometimes…"

Sometimes Shane needed the money. Alina had seen the reward offer and it had been a hefty amount. Probably enough to replace all the furniture she'd just risked his safety to bring back. She shook the thought off, not wanting to dwell on it. "So we'll be gone for a while? Two or three days?"

"Two. Pack warm clothes."

She wanted to ask him questions. There were dozens swirling around in her head. But she stayed quiet, beyond thankful that he hadn't told her to go and never come back. She would probably have deserved it. The bedroom door behind them eventually cracked open and Chayla asked "Can I come out now?"

"Yes, we're done," Shane said. He held a hand out over the loveseat's arm and a second later Chayla grabbed a hold of it as she rounded the couch at a run. Shane used the momentum to swing her up onto his lap. Alina bit back a smile, wondering if they had practiced that before.

Chayla looked at the two of them seriously for a second before smiling in satisfaction. She squirmed into the small space between the two of them and then threw her arms around each of them. Alina saw Shane smile slightly.

She determined then and there to do better.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"No doctor visits ever? Really?" Irvine growled as they walked out of Timber's hospital.

Zell shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as the cool breeze of the day hit them, ducking his head a little into the jacket's collar. "Maybe this Shane guy thought it would be too risky."

"He'd have to have some medical training if that's the case. Children get sick, even Sorceresses."

Irvine's tone said he was still angry, but then it had taken all the paperwork they'd had and a call to XU to get them the records they needed to look through. The staff had not been cooperative to them looking at confidential patient records. But there had been no records of any small girls matching the artist rendition of the Sorceress girl they had got earlier that week from Paige. Nor any records matching to the name of Shane Guile. Any negative was also knowledge they might use Zell knew, but it still felt like an utter waste of four hours.

He sighed, then pulled the artist's drawing from his back pocket. It was colored this time and Zell frowned once more over it. He couldn't stop looking at it.

Irvine said he couldn't see it but with those grey eyes and black hair…

Zell sighed. It was just a fantasy, he knew. It could only be a coincidence that this child looked like a hybrid of Squall and Rinoa. They had found the baby's bones in the grave. Furthermore, DNA tests on the bones proved they matched that of a child between his two friends. There was nothing to dispute there.

Still he couldn't stop looking at the drawing, trying to find similarities. Picking at a scab, even though it hurt.

"You shouldn't-" Irvine started to say but the ringing of his phone interrupted him. He answered briskly. "Kinneas."

Zell didn't need Irvine to tell him. The sharpshooter thought he spent too much time looking at the drawing. He folded it up carefully, smoothing the edges and then put it back into his pocket.

"I'll be there in two days." Zell raised his eyebrow as Irvine hung up. The brunette looked over, his expression half way between bewildered and excited. "Ellone agreed to try and bypass the block."

Zell was more surprised than he cared to admit. He hadn't thought Ellone would agree. "Shall I come with you?" he asked instead of voicing his thoughts.

"No need," Irvine said. "Stay here and see if you can find any more leads."

Zell doubted he'd find anything new but he nodded. "Isn't Quistis supposed to be in Esthar by now?" he asked as they began walking towards the rented car again.

Irvine was already browsing the train schedule he'd had in his wallet. "Probably," he muttered, running a finger down the list of times in the pamphlet.

Zell rolled his eyes at Irvine's fervor. "Well make sure you stop by and say hi at least," he reminded the sharpshooter. "And while you're there, get that feather looked at."

Maybe _he_ would look into that neighbor; the one on the other side of the condo who had moved not long after Shane Guile and the Sorceress child had moved. He doubted the individual knew anything about the sorceress specifically but it was suspicious that they had moved around that time as well. Maybe they had seen or heard something. They _had _lived right next door.

In fact they could have seen a lot.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall watched Alina sleep against his shoulder with his brow furrowed, and ran his fingers through Chayla's hair where she was asleep on his lap.

He supposed he wasn't that surprised that Alina had lied about having friends in Timber. Only someone with no ties would uproot their life to follow him to Deling. That or someone under orders to not let him out of their sites.

But no. He'd decided a long time ago that Alina was not under someone's thumb. There were multiple records that showed she'd grown up in Timber, had lived there her whole life. And she was too blatantly nosy.

She never _had_ mentioned any other friends, strictly speaking. He had just assumed. He knew she'd dated a few times but the men had never lasted beyond a few months. It made him wonder why she had befriended _him_. Why him and no one else?

He made himself think back to when he'd first met her, trying to recall the details. At first it eluded him, but then suddenly, with flare of pain, he was suddenly in a memory.

"_Daddy! Daddy!" Chayla shouted through the open bathroom door. "Door!"_

_Squall cursed. "Don't open it," he shouted, stopping the water. "Chayla! I mean it!" He slammed the shower door open and grabbed a towel. He barely had time to drag some pants on before he heard Chayla knocking on the front door herself. "Hehwo?" she was saying._

_He grabbed a shirt on his way out of the room. "Chayla," he hissed. She turned to sulk at him but she moved away from the closed door obediently._

"_Hello?" came a muted voice from the other side, in hesitant reply to Chayla's greeting. It wasn't a voice he recognized. Squall jerked the shirt over his head as he opened the door. "Oh, hello." The voice said, much clearer this time._

_The voice belonged to a woman. She had caramel hair tumbling over her shoulders, and startlingly bright green eyes. And she was ogling him. _

"_Yes?" he said, yanking the shirt down to cover his stomach._

_She blinked, cleared her throat and held up a plate of cookies. "Hi! I'm Alina. I'm you're next door neighbor. I thought I'd come say welcome and offer some neighborly cookies." She smiled, showing off pearly white teeth. _

_He felt Chayla's hand clutching his pants as she peeked around his leg at the woman standing in their door. "'ookie?"_

_Squall hesitated. _

_The smile slipped. "I'm… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come so early." The plate lowered and the woman bit a nail in nervousness, eyes skewing to the side. "You see my sister just moved away a few weeks ago and I've been crazy bored without someone to talk to. You know the feeling? Where you start talking to yourself because you're so lonely? Actually, I don't know why you'd ever have felt that way. Sorry. I'm babbling. I don't usually babble except that I wasn't expecting… well. You I guess. I hope I didn't-"_

_Squall opened the door a little wider and the babbling stopped. He nodded his head towards the inside of the house slightly. "You can put them in the kitchen."_

_The woman smiled nervously before nodding and stepping inside. She looked around the place unashamedly as she moved towards the kitchen in the back of the room. "Still unpacking?" she asked. He didn't bother replying. The boxes scattered around the room were more than answer enough. Instead he watched her closely. She was either exactly what she said she was or an incredibly good actor. Either way, it was important to act as if this was all normal. _

_After she'd set the plate on the kitchen counter, the woman unwrapped a corner of the foil and took a cookie out. She held it out to Chayla who had followed Squall across the room, one hand still clutching his pants. Chayla smiled and reached for it. Squall grabbed it first. "Later," he told her. Later, after he'd checked to make sure they were just cookies. _

_The woman shrugged and straightened, still smiling. She stuck a hand out. "I'm Alina, you're next door neighbor," she repeated. _

_Squall didn't shake her hand but he nodded. "Shane," he said, then put a hand on Chayla's black hair. "This is my daughter. Chayla."_

Squall blinked and the vision vanished.

He sighed and rubbed a hand against his forehead. Another one of his own memories. He stayed like that for a while, thinking about it, trying to analyze what was happening. He'd been trying to remember that scene. He'd wanted to remember it. Had he triggered something? Experimentally he tried to think of something else. Alina's visit on Chayla's third birthday. Alina showing him his first board game.

Nothing.

He tightened his fingers around his forehead and tried again, pouring will into it.

This time the flare of pain was less.

"_And that is how you make a damned good casserole!" Alina exclaimed with a flourish of the spatula. "You'd better have been taking notes." _

_Squall felt a smile tug on his lips. "It looks easy enough to make." He took the spatula out of Alina's hands and began dishing the dinner onto three plates. _

_Alina went to coax Chayla away from the television show she was watching while Squall put the food on the table. He was pouring milk into Chayla's child cup when he heard his daughter's cry of hurt. The milk sloshed as he jerked to look over the counter's ledge into the living room but it was only Alina turning the broadcasting system off. Chayla opened her mouth to scream in protest but Alina was there first, tickling her under her knees and along her side, saying something about rotting brains and melting eyes. The intended scream morphed into a shriek of laughter as the girl squirmed under the women's fingers. _

_Squall mopped up the spilled milk and brought the drinks to the table, just as Alina was tucking Chayla into her high chair. _

_Squall watched Alina as she chatted about this and that between bites of the casserole. It really was quite good. He wondered if-_

Squall groaned and doubled over a little as spikes of pain slammed into his head.

Bad idea. That had been a very bad idea.

Chayla mumbled and snuggled further into his stomach. He gathered her in his arms and stood, being careful to position Alina more fully into the couch's support as he did so. Setting Chayla down where he'd been he left them and stumbled to the bedroom's bathroom.

It took him a few moments to find the pain relievers in the cabinet but when he finally saw them he dumped three into his hand and swallowed with a gulp of tap water. He left the bathroom and crawled onto the bed, promising the pain that he would stop moving. It didn't seem to care one way or the other, so he curled up and just focused on breathing until the remedies kicked in fifteen minutes later.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Selphie sighed explosively and closed the book. Another one with nothing they didn't already know. She stood and put the book in the box Zell had labeled 'Worthless' on the table by the door so someone could eventually collect them and return them to where they'd originally come from. It was next to the 'More Work' box where there were a few books left from the library in the Estharian Palace.

She was in the network room, something they'd long ago put together in an effort to organize the limited information they had gathered, a hidden room on the second floor of Balamb Garden that had once been full of file cabinets. XU had originally set it up like a war room with dim lights and a solitary table in the center for research. But Selphie had long ago banished that idea and had furnished the room with a dozen lamps, green plants, a mini fridge, a sofa and some comfortable chairs. The stash of food was in a cupboard-like box turned on its side and overflowing. The stereo was on the other side of the room and was currently playing a soft Celtic tune. And since it was just her now, she'd brought in some beanbags to litter the floor with.

She was fingering the three other books in the 'More Work' box near the door, trying to decide which one looked more interesting, when there was a knock on the door. It opened a moment later and XU stepped inside. "Selphie," the women greeted, seeing her immediately.

Selphie stepped away from the table and saluted. XU waved a hand in an 'at ease' gesture and stepped fully inside the room, letting the door shut behind her. "Any news for me?"

Selphie shook her head. "No ma'am. Nothing since the drawing Zell faxed over yesterday."

But XU stepped past her towards the back wall anyways.

Selphie rolled her eyes behind the women but followed her to the wall.

The 'wall' was covered with a scattering of highlighted articles, pictures and lists; anything that had a connection to Sorceresses or the magical power.

Selphie let XU look again at what she'd looked at last week and the week before that. Nothing had changed, but Selphie knew it made XU feel better to see it, and think about it. She followed the Commander's eyes to the drawing she'd pinned up that Zell had faxed over. She'd hung it next to the drawing they'd gotten two years ago from the witness in Esthar and the differences were clear. The new one was much better; more detailed and colored to boot. Selphie had tried to see Ultimecia in the drawn child but couldn't. She didn't let it bother her though. She'd only seen Ultimecia for a short period of time and children didn't always look like the adult they would became.

Since she was standing there, she let her eyes wander and scan over some of the highlighted selections from Dr. Odine's thesis, knowing XU was looking at them as well, probing, trying to find anything in the words that they hadn't already taken out and tore apart for hidden meaning.

_Sorceress power has been passed throughout history by the process of embodiment, wherein a dying sorceress passes on her powers to a chosen successor who is unable to reject the transfer of power. Any woman with the potential to receive sorceress powers may become a sorceress._

_The recipient of the power must be physically close to the sorceress at the time of their death in order to receive it. It is unknown what happens to the sorceress and/or her power if there are no recipients in proximity to them. It is also unknown if the power has a cumulative effect when a sorceress receives more than one sorceress' power._

_A sorceress differs from normal__humans__as they can use__magic__ until she must eventually pass her powers to another individual at the time of her death._

_The Sorceress Power seems to be an immortal, inexorable power. It attaches to a person and remains with them until their death, at which point it must be passed on to another sorceress or potential sorceress._

Basically everything they already knew from what Edea had told Headmaster Cramer. Her eyes flickered to one of the other highlights they'd pulled from the thesis: _Legends state that sorceresses originate from the god Hyne, who is said to have created humanity. According to legend, the sorceresses are people wielding the magic of Hyne. _

She'd spent a fair few months researching anything and everything Hyne as a result of those two lines. She probably knew enough about the theology by now that she'd be able to preach it!

She _had_ found a page from the book "The Legend of Vascaroon" that spoke about the legend which she had put on the wall. She let her eyes find it and read silently the words she knew by heart now.

_Once upon a time, there was a person named Hyne. Hyne was the ruler of the world. He became lazy and decided to make a tool to make his life easier. Hyne made a neat tool. His tool could make more tools by itself. Soon there were a lot of tools in the world. These tools were actually people. When Hyne woke up, he was surprised because there were a lot of people. Hyne wanted to reduce the number of people, and used magic to burn up a lot of small people. The small people were children. The people cherished the children very much. So the people rebelled against Hyne. Hyne used powerful magic to fight them. The people couldn't use magic, but they had wisdom. Eventually, Hyne began to lose the war, because there were too many people to fight, and they were getting smarter. Therefore, he decided to make peace with people by offering them half of his body along with his powers. Hyne cut his body in half and gave the people half as he promised. Then, another war started. People began to fight over the power Hyne offered them through his body. This war lasted decades. Finally, King Zebalga and the Zebalga tribe emerged victorious and demanded Hyne's body-half to get its powers. But the body ignored their commands. Then, Vascaroon came to the rescue. He appeared before the confused Zebalgas and revealed to them that Hyne's body-half was corrupt and possessed no real power. The body-half was actually Hyne's cast-off skin. The Zebalgas were angered by this truth, and decided to destroy Hyne. The Zebalgas never found Hyne. People began to call him "Hyne the Magician" and continued to hunt him for centuries to come._

Hardly helpful at all, but she had put it up anyways just to have something there after all the hours of pouring over the subject. Besides, maybe there were clues buried in it somewhere that they just didn't know how to see yet. After all, there were always grains of truth in even the most outrageous of legends. And if Dr. Odine's statement had any truth to it, then the power was connected to Hyne somehow, whoever or whatever he or she had been.

She took a few steps to the side to take in the semi-biography of the Sorceresses they knew about that Quistis had put together: Adel, Edea, Rinoa, and Ultimecia. Each had a picture above their name and a short bio of their life, at least those events that they knew about. Selphie herself had drawn the picture of Ultimecia since they didn't have one. She thought it was pretty good. The one of Adel she'd found in an old newspaper.

She glanced over at the two witness drawings, pursing her lips, and then walked over and took them off the wall. XU watched her as she re-hung them next to her drawing of the adult Ultimecia and then nodded in acceptance before joining her in study of the women.

To the side was the list of known abilities they knew Sorceresses could use: telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy, mind control, mental possession, control over the elements, the installation of life into inanimate objects, projection of kinetic barriers, the capacity to phase through solid matter, and enhanced strength and endurance. And yet Edea had not been able to teleport before Ultimecia had possessed her. And Rinoa had never been able to instill life into inanimate objects. There was something there about the abilities that they were missing but she hadn't found anything to account for it yet, so the list remained.

Above those and to the side Quistis had tacked up a page from a SeeD lecture transcript and highlighted _one sorceress stood up for the people of a small country when the country collapsed, another caused the __Sorceress War__, and a third that cooperated with the government to develop Para-Magic _with the first phrase underlined twice. The transcript had been from an old lecture Quistis had found in the archives and was outdated. The sorceress who caused the Sorceress War and the one who cooperated with the government were one in the same: Adel. It was the other Sorceress mentioned that was the reason this was on the wall. Sometime in the past there had been a sorceress who had stood up for the people of a small country.

Selphie had been sure that she'd find some records about the unknown sorceress if knowledge of one existed in SeeD's archives, but she only found vague mentions.

She sighed and looked down at the small bookcase against the wall where a few books were standing with tags scattered throughout them. All only vague mentions of past sorceress. There was never anything concrete.

She glanced at XU in the corner of her eye. The woman was looking at the four sorceress pictures but her hand was rested against the blank space before Adel, left open for any other Sorceress's they could find in history.

Irvine had asked once if the Sorceresses they had fought in Time Compression could have been past sorceresses and for a while she and Quistis had gone off that thought. But in the end, Selphie had put the theory down. The fact that the Sorceresses had all looked similar and that the last one had been more worm than human had convinced her that Time Compression itself had manifested the Sorceresses as guardians. XU still thought there was something there, but Selphie disagreed.

Selphie turned towards the right side of the wall where they had dedicated a space for Sorceress Knights. One of Dr. Odine's thesis pages was there with two lines highlight: _The term Sorceress' Knight is applied to a male companion who protects the sorceress. The Knight protects his sorceress both from external dangers and her own powers. _Names were linked underneath. Edea-Cid, Rinoa-Squall, and Ultimecia-Seifer. Adel's knight was the only one they didn't know.

Selphie tended to stay away from that corner. It just gave them more questions. Did a knight also have to be a lover? Was there actually a physical bond between Sorceress and knight? On and on the questions came.

Selphie uncrossed her arms, crossed them again, looked at the whole of the wall and then sighed explosively.

She looked at XU and saw in her eyes too the blatant truth of it. There had been hours and hours put into this wall of information.

It was a lot.

And it was nothing.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 5: Digital Daggers - The Razor's Edge


	6. Part 1: Chapter 5

Revised: 8/2015

**Chapter 5**

_-"It's you're hellspawn. You're child."__**-**_

Alina plodded past Shane when he opened the door and headed straight for the couch in his living room. "Too early," she moaned as she dropped her bag and collapsed down onto the cushions. "The sun isn't even up." She complained and nuzzled further into the cushions. When Shane didn't say anything she cracked an eye open slowly. He was standing at the side of the couch looking down at her.

"You're not dressed," he said, referring to the plaid pajamas she was still wearing.

She yawned and rolled onto her side. "You're lucky I even got here. Six o' clock is way too early to be up. How do you even function this early?"

She heard him sigh. "Just go home Alina."

"No!" she bolted upright and glared at him. "Chayla needs me to protect her."

"The car has protective-shields. The monsters can't get close to it. She'll be fine."

She stared at him for a second before realizing she needed a comeback. "Well… she'll get lonely! I'm not _that _tired. Come on don't push me out of the adventure."

Shane rubbed a hand over his face. "It's not an adventure," he said then turned away. Alina got up and followed him, dragging her bag behind her, trying to stifle another yawn. She wouldn't allow him to push her out now, not after she had gotten him to agree in the first place.

When she followed him into the bedroom she smiled as she caught sight of Chayla. The girl was on Shane's bed, dressed but wrapped in a blanket and dozing against the pillows with her yellow bird doll under one elbow. The lamp was on, masking the very dim light coming in from under the window blinds.

"Get dressed. We should leave soon."

She turned. Shane was rummaging in the closest for something. "How long have you been doing this?"

He stopped his movements and turned to look at her. "What?"

"How long have you been doing these jobs?" she repeated and waved a hand around the room. "Going out and killing monsters?"

"A while," was all Shane said.

"And Chayla? You wouldn't have been able to leave her on her own alone for very long when she was smaller."

Shane's eyes traveled to look at his daughter for a moment and then he went back to whatever he was looking for in the closet. Alina sighed at his no answer and headed for the bathroom to change.

She didn't think he had been doing this kind of work for that long. You couldn't just leave a baby alone. Chayla had been two years old when the two of them had moved to Timber and rented the condo next to Alina's. Had that been the beginning? The first stop in Shane's run from whoever was after him? Chayla would have been old enough to leave for half an hour or so at that point, if barely.

She didn't like the idea of him doing that.

What would have happened if Shane had been attacked and hurt? What if he got hurt and couldn't get back to the car? What would have become of Chayla, locked in a car with no one the wiser to where she was. Did he leave a window open so she didn't overheat? Did he park the car somewhere hidden so no one could stumble on the car and see the girl all alone?

She stopped her imagination as the problems looped through her head. She had to trust that Shane knew what he'd been doing. After all, nothing had happened to him or Chayla so far. That had to say something.

She made quick work of the change, stuffing her pajamas into her overnight duffel and attempted to put her hair up into a ponytail until she realized she didn't have a hair band with her. She huffed, then opened the drawer under the sink. Chayla's hair was up a lot. There had to be some bands in this room.

She didn't' find any in the first drawer or the second drawer, just toothbrushes, toothpastes and essentials. She frowned and opened the bigger cabinet, and pulled the garbage bin out. Maybe they were in a box in the back. Once the garbage bin was out of the way however she stopped, eyeing what the bin had been blocking.

Hair dye. She let her hair go and reached in to pull one of the boxes out.

Black hair dye.

Who was it for? Shane or Chayla?

She'd never seen any indication that one or the other's hair was dyed so Shane had to be going through these pretty fast to cover any showing roots before they even cropped up.

She sighed and contemplated the box. Somehow she didn't think he'd like knowing she knew about the dyed hair. Besides, she had decided to let him have his secrets... At least for a little while. So she put the dye back carefully, lining it up in the corner like it had been before she'd pulled it out and replaced the garage bin.

She found the hair bands in the in the top drawer when she pulled the drawer out as far as it would go, shoved into the back behind brushes and paste.

When she came out of the bathroom Shane was gone, so she sat down on the bed next to Chayla and pulled an errant hair that was out of place back along the child's ear. Whatever was going on, whatever Shane was running from and however he was keeping an income, he was taking good care of Chayla. That had always come first, she knew. The evidence was in every action Shane took. She didn't think her _own_ parents had ever been that constant in their love to her or her sister.

She heard the front door open and then Shane was in the bedroom door, wearing a jacket.

"What were you doing?" she asked.

"Getting the car packed," he picked up her duffel bag from where she'd dropped it by the bed and then approached to pick up Chayla. The girl murmured and sleepily curled up on her father's shoulder. Shane supported her with both arms and nodded his head towards the door. "Come on. We should get going."

She followed him out of the apartment and locked the door for him, stifling a yawn away from his eyes. Really, she wasn't sure why he looked so awake. Did he have insomnia or something?

Fifteen minutes later, when they were on the road with the heater on and Alina had woken up a little more, she stretched and hummed and then turned an eye on Shane. "So, what are we going to talk about for eight hours?" she asked.

She had to laugh at his expression.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ellone opened the door slightly. Seeing it was him she opened it further and stepped aside.

"Thank you," Irvine said as he stepped in, implying much more but not wanting to say it outright.

She didn't answer, just closed the door after him and led the way into her apartment's living room. When she reached the middle of the room she stopped and turned around to face him. "I only agreed because Squall can no longer know the circumstances. That does not mean we are not destroying his trust. We are."

He kept his mouth shut and just nodded.

She glared at him and gestured to the couch. "I'll start at the end and then find where the block begins, feel out its parameters."

Irvine took his jacket off and laid it on the back of the couch then circled the piece of furniture until he could sit on it. When Ellone told him to lie down he did, staring up at the ceiling. There was a fan above him, circling lazily. "What do I do?"

"Just close your eyes and relax."

Relaxing would be impossible, he knew, but he closed his eyes. Her magic started a moment after. At first he just started to feel tired but then the sensation enveloped him and he sagged into the couch, exhausted. Fogginess surrounded him and his thoughts became groggy. In less than a minute he slipped into sleep.

The shift back into consciousness was not smooth. One minute he was sleeping on Ellone's couch and the next he was holding Rinoa's head under water. He was in Squall's body, but he had no control over the limbs. He couldn't feel what the man could feel, only hear and see what the other saw and heard. All he could do was watch through Squall's blackened vision as one of Rinoa's wings slapped at the water and talons tore at Squall's wrists.

Again.

Squall was panting and blood was dripping into the water he was bent over. There was some wound on the brunette's face. There was another on his arm. Blood coated the water in the immediate vicinity.

He wondered briefly if Ellone had really picked this memory to remind herself of the "parameters" or if she was just punishing him for making her do this.

When Rinoa's feet finally stopped kicking, Squall reared up with what sounded like a strangled sob and stumbled back a few feet in the water. His wavering vision watched as one wing twitched, and then he'd whirled drunkenly and scrambled up the river bank. He made it to the top before something splashed in the water and he jerked his head back around.

Something hit him before he made it all the way around. He never saw what it was, but Irvine was certain it was a spell. There had been a splash. It was Rinoa's last attack. Irvine's limited visibility disappeared as Squall's eyes squeezed shut, but he heard the man's screams.

This was where Ellone's link began to unravel. There was a pause in which he _felt _the link holding him in Squall's body shiver and then some undeterminable time had passed because the Squall he was in was no longer screaming. Squall's eye's blinked open blearily before there was another shiver. This time Irvine heard the huff of a beast's breath. Squall's eyes opened a crack and his head rolled to the side. He made some kind of noise when he saw the Blue Dragon leaning over him and … _shiver… _he was being dragged by the arm. He was facing the river, which was further away now, towards Rinoa's body, towards his other hand which was clawing at the dirt he was being dragged across… _shiver._

Irvine bolted upright on the couch, gasping.

"That's where the link fails," Ellone said numbly. Irvine turned to see tears tracking down her cheeks. She was being silent but seeing Squall's death again hit her hard. But even before he could think if he had a right to comfort her or not she was wiping them away and gesturing him back down. "I'll find the last memory before the block now."

He didn't think he was ready quite yet but he lay down nonetheless. It would be the first memory other than the death that he'd see and he wasn't about to give Ellone a reason to second guess her decision. He shoved the horror of the recent memory down into the back of his mind and tried to ready himself.

The exhaustion hit him again and he could tell he was going to get sick of that feeling very soon.

When he transitioned he couldn't see.

"What?" Rinoa's voice asked.

Squall took his hand away from his head. "Fairies," he muttered.

Rinoa gave a bark of laughter. "Good god, I must have hit you harder than I thought."

Stunning surprise surged through Irvine at the remark but Squall was shaking his head, not even reacting to the comment. "Laguna used to say that he felt something when Ellone sent me back into his past. He called them fairies."

Rinoa's face hardened instantly in Squall's periphery. "Someone in the future is looking at us now?" She stood from the couch she had been lounging on, her belly huge, and stalked towards him. "How many times have you felt this before?" She didn't give him time to answer before she reached him and, gripping his shirt in one hand, shoved him into the wall behind him. An apple dropped from Squall's hand to hit the floor with a dull sound. "Don't move," she hissed and placed her other hand on his head.

Irvine heard Squall's pained gasp before whatever Rinoa had done shoved him out of Squall's head.

He expected to wake up but instead he found himself in another memory. Squall was sitting at his desk. The desk in his office at Garden. Irvine recognized its shiny mahogany surface. Squall was staring at Rinoa who was standing in front of the desk with her arms crossed over her now flat belly.

"What?" Squall croaked, his entire body frozen.

"I'm pregnant." She said flatly, probably repeating herself.

Irvine thought he might have started crying if he'd been in his own body. Hyne's Tears, he hadn't seen Rinoa in four and half years. To see her through Squall's eyes back then, looking like she used to, it almost made him forget the previous memory he had just seen. Almost.

Why was Ellone taking him back so far? The Rinoa in this memory seemed normal. Was she trying to find where it had changed? Because she knew as well as he did that what they had seen in the last memory was not how the Rinoa they had known would have behaved.

"Did you hear me?" Rinoa said, and Irvine refocused on her through Squall's eyes. "I'm pregnant."

"Are you…. sure?" Squall whispered finally.

"Of course I'm sure!" Rinoa said, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. "Damnit, Squall. We messed up."

Squall slowly set his pen down. "No. I can't… That's impossible."

"Apparently not."

Squall was staring at Rinoa's belly. "Rin. I can't…" Irvine didn't think he had ever heard Squall's voice sound so small, so frightened.

Squall blinked and Rinoa was there, leaning over him. "You can, Squall. You have to. We did this. We have to deal with it."

The memory slid away after those words, into a new one.

Squall was lying on his side on a bed. He was staring at nothing but Irvine took in the desk on the periphery of Squall's sight and concluded that Squall was in his and Rinoa's apartment in Balamb. The brunette sighed and then leaned up a little as he heard the door open and close. Rinoa entered the bedroom a second later and dropped a bag on the ground. "It's done," she said and crawled onto the bed to lie down next to him. "I told them."

Irvine recognized the purple top she was wearing. This was the night she had told them all the news of the pregnancy over dinner. The purple shirt had been burned into his memory because he'd stared at it while she had explained what had happened, too shocked to meet her eyes.

"And?" Squall asked softly.

Rinoa shifted she so was lying facing him. "They took it well I guess. Asked the same questions we've been asking already." She was silent for a while before speaking again. "We can't hide it. Sooner or later I'll begin to show."

Squall wrapped an arm around the raven haired women and pulled her closer.

"What if my power is toxic to the fetus?" Rinoa asked, pushing up against him. "What if it kills our baby Squall?"

Irvine caught the spasm of Squall's hand over Rinoa's shoulder at the term 'baby'.

Rinoa continued. "Or what if it makes the baby a sorceress? What if it sucks the power right out of me? There can't be more than one Sorceress right?"

"I don't know," Squall whispered into her hair.

Ellone pulled him away from that memory as well, still jumping forward at intervals.

In the next memory Rinoa was screaming at him, or in actuality at Squall. "It's your goddamn fault!" She shot her hand out and electricity shot forward. Squall ducked then turned and grimaced at the dark burn on the wall.

"Stop it," he hissed, turning back to the enraged sorceress. "You're going to destroy something."

"How about you!" she shrieked and sent an icicle next. Squall had to roll out of the way. He rolled twice and was up running. He dodged another spell, this time a fire that burst against another wall, before he reached her. He slammed into her and they both hit the wall. She struggled, thrashing against him.

"Rin, Stop. Just stop for a minute!"

Between one moment and the next, her shrieks turned to sobs and she sagged into him, crying.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said over and over again.

Irvine's vision blurred and then he was looking at Dr. Kadowaki. "Ah good. You're up."

Squall's hand came up and massaged his head. "What happened?" he said in a rasping tone.

"You passed out. Damn place to do it to. You were on the stairs. It was only luck that Irvine was with you and caught you before you fell back down them all."

Squall's hand came away and he turned his head to look at the brunette sitting in a chair against the opposite wall. It was too weird to see himself through Squall's eyes; Irvine was glad when Squall turned away as Dr. Kadowaki spoke again. "You're not eating." It wasn't a question. "You're not sleeping either, are you?"

Squall's hand came back to cover his eyes. Dr. Kadowaki clucked her tongue. "Your blood sugar levels are very low and your immune system is shot. Keep that up with the stress your body is handling and you might just give yourself a heart attack."

Squall didn't say anything but Irvine remembered watching the Commander that day from his seat as Dr. Kadowaki hassled the man about his health. Remembered how pale and sickly he'd looked.

"Sit up Squall," the doctor said. Squall sighed but did so, letting his hand drop. Irvine watched the scene he knew again from different eyes as Dr. Kadowaki handed Squall two bottles of pills. "This one is for your insomnia, and this one is for the depression." It was imperceptible while in Squall's memory but Irvine remembered the way Squall had stiffened at that last word, his expression shutting down. "Take one every night and if the symptoms don't get better come back and see me. I'd rather you stayed here for a few days but I know you won't even consider the request. I've tasked Irvine with making sure you eat."

Irvine and Squall stared at the bottles in his hands. "Squall." Dr. Kadowaki's voice was gentler that time. "I know you and Rinoa are going through a difficult period right now, but you have to keep your body strong. Rinoa needs you and that baby needs you. Try the pills."

Ellone jerked Irvine into a new memory.

"Get it away from me!" That was Rinoa's shriek.

Squall was on his knees with his arms wrapped around a thrashing Angelo. It looked like it was taking brute strength to keep the dog from leaping at Rinoa who was backed into a corner. The dog's growls were low and deep.

It happened in a flash.

Rinoa's wings came out with a snap.

"Rinoa, don't!-"

It was too late. A hand came up and the mass of animal in Squall's arms exploded. That was the only way of describing it. Squall gasped as gore hit him in the face and he fell back, scrambling away from it. Shock again tore through Irvine and he would have gagged if he could. Squall did it for him, turning and dry heaving.

Irvine felt sick.

Squall had told them that Rinoa had _accidentally_ killed Angelo; that the dog had startled her and she'd reacted without thinking first. The Commander had used it very convincingly to persuade Garden to let them leave for a vacation house; he didn't want to risk it happening again.

But that had been no accident, what he'd just seen Rinoa do.

What the _hell_ was going on here?

In the next memory Rinoa was kissing him. He wasn't sure how long it had been going on for, but Squall was already pulling away. "Rin… Not now."

"Why not?" the woman demanded.

"Because you're not you right now," he replied, edging away from her reaching hand while Irvine ran the comment through his head furiously. Squall was starting to turn away when Rinoa hissed. In a second her wings were out and she'd leapt at him. Squall grunted as his back hit the floor and then Rinoa was straddling his hips and leaning towards him, caressing his cheek with her hand. Irvine looked out from Squall's eyes and saw grey wings. They were in the periphery though. Squall was focusing on something else - amber eyes. The warm chocolate color they'd been was gone.

"I make your skin crawl, don't I?" she asked Squall.

"Rin-"

"Don't lie. I can see it in your eyes. You can't even stand to look at me anymore." Squall stayed silent. "But you still love me, don't you?" When Squall hesitated again, the hand caressing his cheek suddenly slipped out of sight under his jaw. Were they around Squall's throat?

"I know you're in there, Rinoa."

Rinoa laughed. "There's no one else _but_ me. I am me." She stared down at him. "You don't love me," she said, as if thinking aloud. "Not like you did. But you won't leave me either." Her hand appeared from under Squall's jaw and ran it through his hair before gripping it and pulling his head back to expose his neck. Squall didn't struggle. Irvine wished he could see what the woman was doing. Why was Squall putting up with this? Something was wrong!

Then there was a voice in Squall's ear. "My poor damaged knight." She chuckled. Squall must have reacted somehow. "Abandoned by a mother, killed because of you; Abandoned by a father who never loved you; Abandoned by Ellone, and Edea and even Cid. Is that why you won't abandon me?"

Irvine couldn't believe what Rinoa was saying. Where was the sweet loving woman they had taken into their group? She'd been a bitch while pregnant but she had never been _this_ bad.

Rinoa sat up suddenly. "Or is it this?" she asked and placed Squall's hands on her bulging stomach. "It's you're hellspawn. You're child."

"Stop –"

"Can you feel it kicking? It wants to get out. It's powerful already. And when it does it's going to destroy the world. Your child will be the bringer of death."

"Stop it," Squall hissed, his voice stronger. Rinoa smiled down at him, and Irvine could suddenly _see _the madness in that smile, in those eyes. The shock almost pulled him out of Squall's body, but he felt himself snagged and thrust against another memory.

It wasn't like it should have been.

Usually he was just there, looking out through Squall's eyes. This time, sound came first, muffled as if through water. This was the block, he suddenly knew. Something shoved him closer and the sounds became clearer, slowly. "…wrong with you… grip." There was a pause and then, painfully, he was in. He had time to see Rinoa's face, a crease between her brows, before Squall's eyes slammed shut and he gave a cry of pain.

Then, horribly, he spoke. "Ellone. Get… out!"

And just like that he was out, staring up at Ellone's apartment ceiling.

"No," Ellone said, and she was gasping. "No." Irvine turned his head in time to see her stand and rush out of the room, stumbling in her haste to get away.

He groaned and sat up, putting his face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs along his forehead which was aching terribly now. Hyne… those memories. He shuddered and tried not to remember those eyes.

"Squall," he whispered into his hands, old grief surging forth.

After listening to Ellone crying in the other room for a while and trying to put his thoughts in order, he pulled his phone out and dialed out Zell's number. It was picked up after a few rings. "Zell, what color where Ultimecia's eyes?"

"Uh… some yellow color? Why?" It sounded like the blonde was on the road.

"And what about Edea's when we were fighting her?"

"…the same." Zell's phone shifted around before the man spoke again. "What… are you trying to say Irvine?"

Irvine didn't answer right away, too distracted by a sudden thought. Adel's eyes had been red hadn't they? Damnit. His half formed theory shattered then tried to piece themselves back together as he flitted from thought to thought trying to put things together. Amber eyes. Red eyes. How did it all connect?

"Irvine?"

Irvine closed his eyes and shook his head, pushing himself back into the conversation he has started. "Ellone took me back to Squall's memories before the block. Rinoa…" He stopped and started again. "Rinoa's eyes were amber. She wasn't acting like herself."

There was a heavy silence before Zell repeated his earlier question. "What are you trying to say?"

"She was insane, Zell. I could _see_ it. She was insane _before_ she gave birth." And if that was related to being a sorceress? Her eyes had been _amber_. Ultimecia and Edea had had amber eyes, and they had both sought world domination and killed thousands. That could count as insanity.

There was a long silence and then Zell sighed explosively. "Before she gave birth," he repeated to himself softly before raising his voice again. "Do you think that explains why she transferred her powers to some unrelated child? Did she go out before the fight? Find some child to take her powers? _Why_?"

But Irvine had just realized something else. "Zell," he said, staring at the opposite wall in front of himself, horrified and confused. "Rinoa had her powers till the end. She killed Squall with magic."

"What!" the shout hurt Irvine's ears and he pulled the phone away a little before bringing it back and wincing. Hyne's Balls, him and his big mouth.

He'd never thought he'd have to explain exactly how Squall had died. He hadn't wanted to burden anyone else with the pain of it. But this new revelation… Hyne, why had he not realized it before this?! He hurried to explain. "Squall held her head under the water. He thought she'd drowned, but there was a splash and he got hit with something – magic. It was Rinoa. She hit him with something before dying. She had to have still had her powers to do it!"

"Hold on," Zell said gruffly and the rushing noise in the background lessened and then stopped. There was a click and then Zell cursed into the silence. "That doesn't make sense Irvine! There shouldn't have been time for her to transfer her powers after that. Not if she already had water in her lungs."

Irvine rubbed at his head again. "I don't know," he groaned. "I don't know." Damnit, he felt like his head was going to explode from the headache and the slew of revelations sucker punching him all at once.

He thought back, then further back. One of their earlier theories came to him. "Ultimecia was dying when she traveled back in time to give Edea the powers, right?" He said slowly, trying to work through it. "We know that sorceress's can't die without transferring their powers. Maybe she was… stuck."

"What? Stuck between life and death?"

"Until someone came across the site," he agreed. "How else did this new sorceress gain the magic?"

Zell was quiet for a while before sighing explosively. "What if it's not Ultimecia?"

Irvine furrowed his brows. "Zell-"

"No listen for a second." Zell interrupted. "I just had a thought. If Rinoa gave her power to this child - and if she's Ultimecia – then where does it all start? If Rinoa gives it to Ultimecia who gives it to Edea who gives it to Rinoa…"

Irvine groaned. He let his weight drop back down on the couch and turned onto his back, putting an elbow over his eyes. "Where does Adel fit in?" he said, thinking it aloud. Adel had had red eyes. It didn't fit. Where had _her_ power come from?

"Adel? Adel gave her powers to… Rinoa. Didn't she?"

"Is that even possible?"

"No one else became a Sorceress. It had to have been Rinoa." Zell sounded like he was rubbing his own head now. "Damnit… Did that make Rinoa twice as powerful?" She hadn't seemed more powerful. "Or did one nullify the other?" Zell's train of thought seemed to snag on Irvine's earlier one. "Wait a minute. Adel might have been frozen in space but she and Edea were sorceress at the same time."

Something else he hadn't realized before. "Why the hell haven't we thought about this all before?" Irvine demanded.

"Too focused on one thing," Zell muttered and then fell silent.

Irvine pinched the bridge between his eyes, thinking, thinking. Amber eyes. Red eyes. Insanity. War. Hate and blame. Inheritance that became a cycle. He snagged on the cycle thought. "Time Compression."

"What do you mean?"

"Ultimecia went back in time to give her powers to Edea. Maybe she messed something up when she did. If originally Adel gave her powers to Edea years later and only in this…our… shit." He stopped talking and tried to organize it in his head before trying again. "What if our perception of the world shifted when Ultimecia went back in time? If she changed something…"

Zell sighed. "Time traveling. Who the hell knows what _that_ could do. How do we know what's original and what's changed then?"

Had the powers split into two when Ultimecia had come back in time? But Adel had given her magic to Rinoa in the end. Maybe the one source of power didn't nullify the other but merged together instead because they were once one and the same?

"I have an idea," he said slowly and related his thoughts for the blonde.

"It sounds logical," Zell said eventually, sounding tired. "We should run it by Dr. Odine."

"Call Selphie and see if this information can't help her find more material. I'll call President Lorie and see if we can get a meeting with the doctor. It'll be faster than going through the assistants at the lab."

"What about the transfer? Do we assume some stranger – this black haired man the witness saw - stumbled on the scene with his daughter?"

"It's the only assumption that makes sense."

It didn't answer why the black haired man was keeping her hidden though. But that was question for another day.

"Was it worth it?" Zell suddenly asked.

Irvine sat up. "What do you mean?"

"Using Ellone to go back into Squall's past? Was it worth it?"

A step in the hallway alerted him. He looked up to see Ellone in the doorway staring at him with dull eyes. "I've got to go. Get a ride here as fast as possible." He hung up and lowered the phone.

"You have what you need," Ellone said. It wasn't a question.

He stood and picked up his jacket. "Thank you Ellone," he said. She didn't respond. Her eyes were terrible to look at so he looked down, shrugging into his jacket. She let him see himself out.

He took the walkway out of the complex until he reached the elevator to the parking garage and his rented car. The walk was long enough that he was able to go over the memories he'd seen of Squall's past again and again.

When Irvine reached his car and slid in, he laid his head down on the steering wheel and cried.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Here"

Alina turned to see Shane holding out a key. She took it and held it up. "This is it?"

Shane took the key back, pointed it at the car and clicked a button. Immediately a shimmering dome coalesced around the car. Alina felt her eyes grow wide. It was one thing to hear about it and quite another to see it.

"Can I touch it?" she asked. At Shane's affirmative she took a few steps forward and hesitantly raised a hand to touch the silvery light. It was hard as a brick. She flattened her palm on it and pushed. It was completely solid. She glanced back at Shane. "Is it magic?"

"Something like that," he said and pushed a button. The dome disappeared. They were still a few feet from the car. It had left some room around the car which would be useful. "Monsters won't come near it. If they get too close they'll get an urge to go in a different direction. You'll be able to hear things outside the dome but anyone on the outside won't be able to hear anything inside. Lastly, similar to the fact that nothing can get in, you can't leave the dome without deactivating it." He held the key out again. "This is the activation button and this is the one to deactivate it."

Alina took the bulky key again and studied it before nodding to show she understood.

"Try it," he said. So she did. It worked exactly like it had done for Shane.

"Is there a second key?" she asked.

Shane ignored her and moved to the car's driver side door. Alina followed, frowning. If there was no second key what would happen if Shane got hurt while away fighting monsters? What if the key was lost or stolen? What would happen if Chayla was stuck in the domed car forever with no one the wiser?

But if there was a second key, who owned it? No one had ever visited Shane's place before, to her knowledge and the only person she'd ever heard Shane talk to or about was his father. His father could have the second key. Yes, that made sense. Except that Shane had said that his father wasn't able to visit. Was he handicapped? Paralyzed? Forbidden to come?

Alina shook her head to rid herself of her ever multiplying thoughts. Everything had worked out so far. She should trust Shane more. She knew he would never put Chayla in harm's way, ever.

When Chayla saw them coming back towards the car she pushed her door open and jumped down. "It's cool huh Lena?"

Alina couldn't help but smile. "It sure is. You said magic makes it possible?" she asked, directing the question at Shane who had pulled open his door and was reaching under the driver's seat.

"A combination of a Confuse spell and Protect," the black haired man responded. Those terms meant nothing to Alina but vague ideas, but before she could comment Shane pulled two knifes out from under the seat. The biggest knifes she'd ever seen.

"You fight with knifes?" she asked.

Shane spared her a glance and she thought his lips might have stretched a little. "They're katals. Blades." And suddenly the weird harness he had buckled onto his belt earlier when they had stopped made sense as he slide the katals into loops and sheaths at the small of his back. Alina watched, fascinated, as a dagger was then slid into the harness he had wrapped around his thigh. He pulled a gun out next, a small handheld one but he didn't put it anywhere on his person. Instead he turned and beckoned her closer.

When she stepped up beside him, Chayla on her heels, he pointed at a knob between the handle and the barrel. "This is the safety. Click it back like this, aim and fire." He clicked the safety back on and held it out towards her.

Alina didn't take it. "I thought you said nothing could get into the dome."

"That's right,"

"Then why do I need a gun?"

"Take it please."

Alina swallowed, glancing at Shane's eyes once before taking the gun out of his hand gingerly. She held it awkwardly with the barrel pointed at the ground and glanced back up. Shane nodded at her and closed his door. He crouched down and held an arm out. Chayla was in it in a second hugging him.

"You have your books. And your games." Shane said, hugging her back. "Alina's here to watch you but it's the same as every other time. You'll be good right?"

"Always daddy."

Shane kissed her forehead and stood. He looked at Alina and said "Don't interrogate my daughter."

He was using his hard voice, the one he used when he was promising consequences if you did otherwise. Alina nodded, maybe a little spastically, and smiled widely. "Of course not!" She stood still as he looked at her for a long uncomfortable minute. Finally he looked down and Alina breathed again. But his words made her breath catch again.

"Thank you."

Then he was gone, striding away towards the ruins. Alina watched until he stopped at the edge of the ruins by a pillar and turned back. When he didn't move further she realized with a start that he was waiting for her. She fingered the key in her hand and activated the dome. It sprang to life in front of her. Shane's hand rose in the distance and then he disappeared behind the pillar.

Alina put the key into her pocket and turned to Chayla. "Well, ready to play?"

Chayla cheered and climbed back into the car to grab her things. Alina opened the driver's door and set the gun on the seat carefully before joining Chayla in the grass just outside of the car.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zell shut his car door and looked up at the house in front of him. It was grey with green shutters, small but probably comfortable. He checked the forwarded address he'd gotten from the Timber post office one more time against it, confirming that it was the right one. He wasn't sure he was in the right mind-frame for this; he was off his game after the call from Irvine. Why the hell hadn't the man said anything about the fact that _Squall_ had _killed _Rinoa? Hyne, they'd been led to believe that each had die of their injuries. Having Irvine tell him that Squall had purposefully held Rinoa in that water was… was…

He didn't know.

He felt betrayed. He felt… hurt.

He'd come to terms with the deaths of his two friends, but now it felt like the grief had been ripped open again.

There had to have been a reason behind Squall's actions, but he felt too upset to conceive of any at the moment. He never would have imagined his leader could do such a thing. But a second later he scoffed. What was he thinking? He'd watched as Squall had killed dozens of men in front of him and he hadn't batted an eye. But… but there was something morally different from killing someone in war and killing someone you loved. Wasn't there?

Except that he knew Rinoa had hurt the Commander. He'd been there when the tests had come back on the blood found on Rinoa's talons. He had the proof that something had been wrong. He had the proof that there had been a fight. And Irvine had said that Rinoa had had amber eyes before the end, that she had been mad long before she'd given birth to a stillborn.

Was it so far stretched then that Squall's self-defense had _had _to turn to something more?

He didn't want to believe it.

Realizing he was staring at the house, he shook himself and pushed the thoughts away. It wouldn't be smart to allow himself to get caught up in his thoughts like that. He stepped away from the car and headed to the house's front door.

He glanced behind him once, sure that someone was watching him but there was no one visible on the street. It wasn't the first time Zell had felt like someone was watching him, and he didn't like the feeling. He tried to shrug it off as he reached the door and rang the doorbell.

It took a minute or two before the door opened and a woman looked out at him. She had auburn colored hair and green eyes that looked at him inquisitively. He cleared his throat and held out his hand. "Good day ma'am. My name is Zell Dincht. I'm looking for an Alina Kristatis."

The woman didn't shake the offered hand and he watched as her eyes got flinty. "Who is she to you?" She asked, letting him know she wasn't Alina with the tone of her voice. Not Alina but someone who knew Alina.

Zell dug his card out of his pocket and showed her the front. "I'm employed by SeeD. I have a few questions for her if she is around."

"She's not."

Zell put the card away and smiled at the woman, trying to make it look genuine. "I can wait."

"Is she involved in something? What right do you have to question her?"

Zell rubbed his neck. He hated this part. "I have government jurisdiction to question anyone related to my case. Why don't we step inside?"

"Right here is fine. Let me see this jurisdiction."

Zell kept his face closed as he pulled the papers from inside his jacket pocket and handed them to the woman. She was protective of this Alina. Perhaps they were related. He waited as she scanned the page then flipped to the second. Finally she handed the papers back, still looking distrustful.

"Are you related to Ms. Kristatis?"

"Her sister."

"And you're name?"

"Denna Kristatis." The words were clipped and short.

"Denna, can you tell me why your sister is living with you now?"

"She moved to Deling and asked to stay here until she found a job and a place."

"Do you know why she moved to Deling?" The woman shrugged. He tried a different tactic. "Has Alina ever mentioned anything about her neighbors in Timber?"

He watched Denna closely but nothing flickered in her eyes. "No."

He tried again, waiting for a tick in the eye, a twitch of the lip, a glance away, anything. "No mention at all of a man? Or a child she might have had any interaction with?"

"No."

He couldn't detect any lie in her body or tone. He held back a sigh. Could it be that this was a dead end as well? He'd been sure that Alina would have seen or heard something. She'd lived right next door! He told himself to smile at Denna. Perhaps Alina did know something and just hadn't told her sister anything.

"Thank you Ms. Kristatis. This is my card." He handed it to her. "I would greatly appreciate it if you would ask your sister to call me when she returns."

Denna took the card, nodded and shut the door in his face. Zell stared at it for a moment before turning and walking back to his car, rubbing his neck as that feeling of being watched returned.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall was stowing the last of the Tonberry knifes into his belt pouch when he walked into it.

It was like walking through a cloud of mist; invisible to the eye but with a slight pressure to show it was there. His head jerked up as the pressure began to tighten and curl around him.

Immediately he felt closed in. And immediately he knew something was wrong. He stepped back but the pressure stayed with him, crushing inwards. He could feel it against his chest, already making it harder to breathe.

No. NO.

Whatever this was…

He took off running, back towards the car and Chayla.

He made it a dozen feet before the run slowed to a pained jog then a hobbling walk. He gasped, trying to get air into lungs that would no longer take any in. The pressure was driving into him from all sides, trying to force its way into his body.

He collapsed, writhing, trying to scream.

Chayla. Chayla… He had to…

_Take it Squall, please. You never know what might happen._

He jerked his wrist up to his mouth and bit down hard on the middle of the watch fastened there. Just in time. There was a red hot pulse and then the pressure was in, surging up into his brain. With it in him, no longer crushing him, he was free to scream.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Laguna was in a meeting when he heard it. At first he didn't realize. The sound was familiar but he couldn't have said where he'd heard it before. When he pinpointed the sound, it was coming from his watch.

He felt the blood drain from his face as he stared down at the object making the soft noise. No… it couldn't…

"President Lorie?" He glanced up at the faces watching him.

He gasped and stood up in a rush, knocking his chair over behind him. "Excuse me… please." He frantically sought out Kiros's eyes in the back of the room then turned and rushed out of the meeting. His guards surrounded him as he emerged from the room and ran with him as he sprinted for his chambers. He didn't care about the glances they were throwing each other as they kept up with him. He clutched the wrist with the watch to his chest, its alarm sounding a terrible toll in his ears.

The guards left off as he reached his chambers, falling back and letting him move on into the fortified part of the palace. He slammed through into his bedchambers and glanced around for anything, something.

There was nothing.

"No," he whispered, and he felt tears prickle his eyes. "No, please."

He shook his head and jerked around for the door again. Kiros caught him by the shoulders as he turned, having just rushed in through the now swinging door. "Laguna! What is it?"

Laguna shoved the watch up into the air between them. Kiros looked at it for a moment before he too remembered its significance. His eyes widened and met Laguna's over the watch. Then his friend's eyes hardened.

"I'll go." The dark skinned man let go of his shoulders and whirled for the door, but stopped before exiting. He looked back. "Laguna, if I bring the girl back you're going to have to make the choice." Then he was gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

AN: There you have it, Part 5. I hope you're enjoying the story.

I need to update all those reading this story of an important change coming up in my life. I have been placed in the Peace Corps for Ghana, Africa. I'll be serving for 2 years and 3 months and I have no guarantee at this point that I'll have reliable internet access. I won't know until I am there. I am planning on continuing writing this story while overseas, even if that means handwriting it (although that will certainly slow the process way down.) However I can't guarantee updates. I am leaving May 31, so expect a chapter or two before then but if I go dark after that, do not fear that I have left this story behind. It might just take some time to back to this site.

Thank you so much for reading!

Until the End Playlist, Song 6: Red – Die For You


	7. Part 1: Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"_And then one day a red-headed giant of a man had appeared."_

_Harren opened the door on an argument. _

"_-no normal lunar cry."_

"_Proportionally-" _

"_Oh don't." It was Calabren, the president's chief advisor, speaking, leaning over the council table and spitting towards the other side where Dr. Odine's research team was sitting. "Creating a lunar cry out of sync with the normal flux? You just introduced more monsters into our world! And destroyed a whole village. You killed thousands of people!"_

_Harren briefly met the eyes of the red-headed woman sitting at the head of the table before making his way to stand behind her right shoulder. No one else seemed to notice his entrance, except for the young Dr. Odine, sitting in the middle of his pack of researchers in his eccentrically flared pants and flashing spectacles. _

_One of the research assistants was bravely speaking up against Calabren's accusations. "No one knew that testing the crystal would conclusively cause the Cry."_

"_And that's why it was tested there and not here? No, you guessed what it would do." The voice belonged to the man sitting three seats down from Calabren – Cras, captain of the city patrol. "They are calling it the Trabia Crater now."_

"_Galbadia has mobilized their army." Calabren said, taking control of the conversation agin, clearly trying to get his anger under control, and as clearly, failing. "They think we are creating weapons of war."_

"_Research comes vith a price, more often zan not," Dr. Odine said, speaking up in his team's defense. "Your president vished ze crystal to be tested. Ve did our job. And now ve know how it relates to our world."_

_Calabren's eyes darted to the woman seated before Harren and he scowled. "I doubt that Macmonth gave his stamped approval for this _manslaughter_."_

_The sorceress never shifted. "President __Macmonth and I have an understanding on the importance of this research. He knew the risks." The look in Calabren's eyes clearly stated that he didn't believe the statement but a second later his expression shifted. Harren didn't see what the sorceress did but he saw Calabren's eyes go wide and dart away quickly. "Was that the last item on this week's agenda?" the woman asked, her voice dangerous. There was absolute stillness in the room._

"_Yes, Sorceress Adel," Calabren muttered to his lap. _

"_Good. Dismissed."_

_Chairs squealed as they were pushed back in haste and papers gathered. Harren leaned down to speak near the sorceress's ear in the confusion of noise. "My lady, your brother has returned."_

_She turned her head and regarded him with amber eyes. As he watched, the amber swirled and began to retreat towards the edges of the irises, and he knew what had intimidated Calabren. The Sorceress nodded, then motioned for him to stay where he was as Dr. Odine made his way towards them. _

_Harren eyed the man with slight distaste. _

_It had taken him seven months to find Ziekiel Odine. When he'd been ordered to find a scientist up to the task of researching a sorceress, he'd had to travel all the way to the Island Closest to Heaven before he'd found this eccentric man, researching monsters. Adel had been looking for a man with loose morals and a smart mind; it hadn't taken Harren more than a few days to know Odine was that man. _

_The scientist had been in Esthar for two years and Harren had left the man to his responsibilities. He'd never really trusted Odine, and his _loose_ morals, but there seemed to be an understanding between him and the Sorceress. _

_Said man reached them and bowed low to the Sorceress. _

"_Sorcerez Adel, please allow me to congratulate you on-"_

"_You're report," she interrupted. "Be quick about it today."_

_The young man didn't miss a beat. "Zere is still challenges vith ze junctioning. Ze newly developed brain implant allows the subject to harness ze Guardian Force for a short amount of time." Here he paused. _

_Guardian Force. The term was new and Harren wondered when the scientist had decided to name the entities he was working with. He glanced sideways at the sorceress to see if the term elicited any response. It hadn't._

_As far as he knew, the thing that Odine had found in the sea was incorporeal energy that could manifest into a monster when threatened. He didn't know what the doctor thought he could do with the energy by linking it to the human mind. Or perhaps, more importantly, what the Sorceress was hoping to create, since Dr. Odine's research could only continue with her blessing. Somehow it was connected to the para magic theory the scientist had been working on since coming to Esthar._

"_But?" the sorceress asked impatiently when the doctor didn't continue. _

_Odine shrugged. "Ze Guardian Force iz leaking from ze implant seal to other parts of ze brain. It… causes a mess." _

"_Build a stronger seal if you must then." The Sorceress said, already standing from her chair. "I trust that you won't _waste_ your subjects needlessly," she added but didn't wait for an answer. She gestured for Harren to follow and strode from the room. _

_Harren followed, not missing the pleased expression on the doctor's face. He frowned and again, wondered. What were they making? Soldiers with greater strength? Super soldiers? A bloody mess on the floor? _

_He shook the thoughts from his head and hurried to follow the sorceress to the palace suites. Everyone they passed paused and bowed their head, mumbling the same thing over and over: "Sorceress Adel." _

_The sorceress never paused._

_When they reached the apartment suites, the sorceress swung the doors open and glided in. "Brother dearest," she greeted without preamble. "Your obsession with that crystal has put us in a delicate position."_

_The man was standing by the windows, wings still corporeal and spread in the soft breeze the window afforded. His red hair, braided like his twins', was thrown over one massive shoulder. He turned and red eyes regarded his sister. "Aye, Larissa. I've just returned from looking at the crater." His eyes shifted and caught on Harren behind his sister. "Ah, you've brought Harren."_

"_Adel," Harren greeted, bowing his head slightly. _

"_Come," Adel said, striding towards a table stacked with maps._

_Harren walked towards the sorcerer, his master, and Larissa, the sister impersonating her stronger twin brother, came behind him. _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina watched Chayla talk, her chin in her hand and a slight smile tugging at her lips.

"-and the princess is strong and helps fight off the dragons."

After playing in the grass for about two hours, Chayla had finally pulled out one of her books and decided to read it to Alina, complete with all her own commentary. They were leaning against one of the car's tires now, in the shade of the car.

Alina hadn't seen anything approach the dome. No monsters, no rodents, nothing. It had been pleasantly quiet. She wondered if Shane was close to being done with his gathering job. How long did it take to find a few Tonberries?

She found her thought kept circling back to the black dye she'd found in Shane's bathroom cabinet. It had to be for Shane's hair. It didn't make sense to color Chaya's' and it made entirely too much sense to color his own hair if someone was after him. It made her wonder what his real hair color was.

And it made her wonder for the first time whether she was doing something stupid, sticking so near.

She'd had a lot of time to think in the car and then on the boat about all that had happened in the last few weeks. She knew she'd been kind of stalkerish lately. Her desire to help had perhaps evolved past what would be considered normal. She had recognized the signs, the regression. But she hadn't reflected on it, not really.

Now though… Shane wasn't _just_ running away from someone in his past, he was _hiding _from that someone. He'd always had black hair, ever since she had known him, which meant that he'd been on the run for much longer than she had fully comprehended. Sure, the thought that this had all begun before even Timber had occurred to her briefly, but to have it shoved in her face so bluntly was shocking.

For the first time, she started to think about what would happen if Shane's past caught up to him. To her, for she had well and truly put herself in its path now.

Denna's voice whispered in her mind again. _Don't let what happened before influence you in this._

But… Shane just looked so lost sometimes.

She huffed out a breath at that sudden thought, knowing what her sister would say to that pitiable thought. What she _should_ be saying to herself.

She sighed and gazed glumly down at Chayla. What was she doing? Why had she left Timber?

Alina flinched as a scream tore through the air. When it was followed by another she gasped and stood up in a rush. Chayla stopped reading and looked up her grey eyes huge. The child recognized the voice as well as Alina did.

Alina had heard people scream before. Screams of terror and panic. Screams of pain. Screams of surprise. This scream wasn't like any of those. This twisted and raked on high and low pitches and she knew; knew it was Shane making those sounds.

And then the screams stopped; just as suddenly as they had started.

Alina stared towards the ruins, her mouth gaping open, trying to understand what had just happened. Numbness started to snake through her mind, into her body. Something was dreadfully wrong. Oh Hyne, something was wrong.

Shane's scream echoed in her mind and then the screams of someone else began a chorus in her head, flinging her back into the past, into the _terror_.

Chayla suddenly dropped her book and rushed towards the ruins, wrenching Alina out of her hovering thoughts at the suddenness of the movement. She stared dumbly as Chayla hit the protective dome and was knocked over into the grass, trying to seeing the girl through the hazy visions before her eyes. Chayla jumped up and slapped her hands against the shield "Daddy!"

That shocked the visions away and Alina snapped into action. She darted forward and scooped Chayla up before dashing back to the car. The child thrashed and started to scream as Alina opened the backseat door and set her on the seat. "Chayla. You have to stay here." Her voice sounded funny, breathless. She cleared her throat, and repeated the command. "Stay here. I'll be right back."

"No! No!"

She shut the door on the hysterical child, and yanked the driver's door open long enough to grab the pistol she had left on the seat. It took a few tries to get her fingers to work enough to push down on the dome deactivation button, but once it was down she ran a few yards away from the car before turning back to reactivate it.

The car door opened and Chayla tumbled out but by the time she had taken two steps forward Alina had pressed the key and the dome had solidified again. She watched as the child pounded on the dome, her mouth open to scream something, but Alina couldn't hear what it was. She pointed to the car, jabbing her finger. "Get back into the car!" she shouted, but Chayla wasn't even listening to her.

Something roared from within the ruins, and Alina shrieked, spinning around to look at the shadows frantically.

What was she doing? If there was something in there that had attacked Shane, what hope did she have of getting in to him and out again? He was the solider, wasn't he; she was just a civilian, carrying a gun she didn't know how to use. She brought her free hand up to cup the hand gripping the pistol, trying to still the trembling there.

She should go back and wait. Shane would come out. In just a minute he'd come running from between those two pillars, maybe a little bloody, maybe a little scratched, but okay and alive. He'd have killed whatever had attacked him. He'd only screamed because whatever it was had startled him. He was going to come back any moment now.

She bit her lips, and swallowed through a dry throat.

He wasn't going to come out. Those screams hadn't been screams of startlement. She knew that, deep down in her gut.

Movement to her right caught her eye and she whipped her head towards it. Blank eyes stared at her and a knife jabbed forward slightly. Alina screamed, turned tail and fled back to the car. She was almost there when she tripped on a hidden rock in the grass. She landed on her hands and knees with a wince then twisted her head around quickly. The small robed monster with the knife was following her. She sobbed out a breath and scuttled away as fast as she could until she was next to the dome, her breath sawing in and out of her throat. Where was the gun? She patted her pockets, flustered, but it wasn't anywhere near her. She must have dropped it.

She flipped around and put her back to the dome, watching the monster get closer, fumbling for the key to deactivate the shield. She had it in her trembling hands and was about to push down on the deactivation button when she stopped. She turned to meet Chayla's wide eyes behind her on the other side of the dome. If she deactivated the dome and didn't get it back up in time, she would be putting Chayla at risk as well.

What did she do?

She turned back. The monster was only ten feet away. Alina bit her lip and prepared to jump to her feet. Maybe she could lure it away, maybe she could…

The monster stopped its forward motion and cocked its head. Alina's breath caught and she held her breath. The Tonberry – yes, a Tonberry that was what it was – took a few steps to the side, and cocked its head again. It wandered back and forth, but it didn't come any closer.

After a minute or two of its wandering, it finally turned and shuffled back to the ruins.

Alina let out an explosive breath. The dome. Shane had said the dome kept monsters away.

Shane. She looked back towards the ruins, then tucked her head down onto her knees and started to cry, the terror of it wrenching them out from her chest in deep heaving sobs. Oh god, what did she do?

She didn't know how long she was curled up until she became aware of the vibrations against her back. She looked up and around. Chayla was smacking at the dome next to her head, crying and shouting something.

Alina fumbled the key up before her watery eyes and deactivated the dome. It vanished and she fell backwards onto her back without its support behind her.

"Lena! Lena!" Small hands patted her cheeks and hair, clumsy in their comfort.

Alina heaved herself upright onto her knees and gathered the child up against her side as the child continued to assure herself that Alina wasn't hurt. Alina ignored the pats and knee crawled to the car until the warm metal was against her back.

Chayla shrieked when the dome coalesced around them again and leapt away from Alina to run back to the dome. "No! Daddy! Daddy! Come back!"

Alina squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her trembling arms around herself. "I'm sorry Chayla," she whispered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Harren remembered when he'd first met Adel. _

_Harren had been leading a small band of citizens in rebellion against President Macmonth, going out on small reconnaissance missions and attacking supply lines in and out of the palace. People were _dying_ in the slums of Esthar from starvation while the president and his aides ate to their hearts content and then burned what was left. _

_He never remembered exactly how he'd become the leader in their little gang of insurgents. He'd been in and out of the slums since he'd found his father's emaciated corpse. He'd had a few good years in the military, and spent some time abroad, but somehow he'd always found himself returning to the slums where he'd grown up. And when Jeffrey Macmonth won presidency and times became almost war-like, he found a reason to stay._

_And then one day a red-headed giant of a man had appeared. He'd watched them, and even participated in a few confrontations with them. Then he had asked Harren how badly he'd wanted to be rid of the president. _

_That had been Harren's introduction into the world of magic and true power. _

_He helped Adel and Larissa infiltrate into the government through his palace contacts and in return they convinced the president to relax his hand on the city's food resources. Suddenly he was the one eating as much as he wanted and living in luxurious palace rooms. _

_He'd known Adel's end goal. He'd become her knight, knowing. _

_But now, looking down at Macmonth's corpse, he wondered if he hadn't fully realized the extent of what that would entail. _

_He could hear Larissa's voice in the background, echoing out over the palace's courtyard and in through the window, lamenting the disappearance of the president and, whether the public knew it or not yet, seizing control. _

_They had done it, the two twins – taken over the Estharian government in two years. Larissa as the visible, womanly sorceress and Adel as the hidden mastermind behind it all. _

_He tried not to look at the gaping hole in Macmonth's throat or the way his chest had been ripped open to reveal the ribcage, also ripped back to expose the now empty thoracic chamber where the heart had once been. He wondered which wound had been inflicted first. The throat? He'd have still been alive to feel his chest cavity being ripped open. _

_He'd come looking for Adel but all he'd found in the sorcerer's chambers had been this grisly sight. There was even a note, written in a languid script, sitting on the table not far from the body._

Dispose of the body. Then see me in the war room.

_The war room had been shut for decades. There was only one reason why Adel would be in there. _

_Harren sighed, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into. _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Chayla was watching her. The child would look at her from the side of her eyes, then go back to staring out towards the ruins. Then after a few moments, she'd sneak another look back at Alina, huddled against the car. Alina didn't know what the child was thinking, or trying to decide. What did Chayla think she could do if Alina let the dome down?

They'd been huddled inside the dome for an hour at least. Maybe two. Alina didn't know. Only recently had her thoughts begun to swirl away from the shame and horror and _remembrance_ enough to begin to think about their situation.

How long did they wait, hoping that somehow, by some miracle, Shane walked out of those ruins? Should she put Chayla in the car and drive to the nearest port. Her first instinct had been to call someone, but who? Should she call the police? Which police? This continent was deserted. It would take the Deling police hours to get here. Maybe someone at the docks could help them. But she doubted there was any fisherman who would be brave enough to go searching in those ruins with monsters lurking behind every shadow.

She'd made a half-hearted search for Shane's phone, thinking that she could call any and every one in his, no doubt, small contact list, but of course it hadn't been in the car.

If she called the police would they even bother to come looking? Centra was a long way away from Deling. Was there a police force at Fisherman's Horizon?

Her thoughts coiled on themselves again, circling and circling, and never getting anywhere.

Chayla was looking at her again.

She had almost made up her mind to call the police anyways when there was a roar of an engine. Chayla jumped up, squawking, and ran back to her as a ship descended from above them. Alina swept the child up into her arms and put a hand on the car door, ready to jump in and drive away. But… Oh Hyne, what if it was someone who could help?

Hope swept through her in a rush, as the ship landed gracefully.

But who would be on a ship in this area and why? Who would be flying over a deserted stretch of land in ship that small? Shane's paranoia must have infected her because suspicions started to creep over the hope. She tightened her hold on the door handle, indecision gluing her feet to the ground. Friend or foe?

It felt like an eternity before the engine died and a gangplank lowered to the ground. The man who walked out of the ship was tall and dark skinned with his hair pulled back into a two small braids at the nape of his neck. He didn't look all that dangerous but she didn't let that fool her.

The man paused at the end of the gangplank and seemed to assess them both for a moment, his face unreadable, as he took in her position. She stared back, trying to keep the uncertainty off her face. Finally he raised a hand in a calming gesture. "I'm a friend." Then he pulled something from underneath his shirt, something on thin chain, and pressed a button.

The dome around them vanished.

Alina sagged against the car as relief surged through her. "Oh thank god," she whispered as the man hurried towards them. Someone had a second key after all. "You know Shane?" she asked, her hand leaving the car door as she turned to fully face the man. "How did you know what happened?"

Too late she realized that Chayla wasn't reacting like she knew the man. The child was gripping her shirt and staring at the man with… cautious eyes? She bit her lip, glanced at the man and took a small step back against the car.

"Please," the man said, raising both hands up in a placating gesture, his voice calm. "Do not fear. Shane and I are old friends."

_Old_ friends? "Friends?" she echoed, darting her eyes towards the ruins and then back to the man. Shane had never mentioned any friends… But the man did have the key.

The man didn't miss her look. He glanced behind himself as well for a brief second before turning back and speaking. "I have known Shane for six years. I helped him build the car's protective shield." Alina glanced at Chayla from the corner of her eyes. The child still didn't seem to recognize the man. "She was too young to remember me," he said, nodding towards Chayla. Damn, he didn't miss much.

There was a long moment of silence where they all stared at each other before Alina cleared her throat. "How – why are you here?"

"Shane has a watch. Have you seen it?" She nodded. "The watch sends out an alert when the center piece is activated. Shane activated it two hours ago."

Alina hitched Chayla higher on her hip and try to think of what Shane would do in this situation. What he'd want _her_ to do. Could she trust the man? He seemed to know things, but… Maybe he was a part of the group after Shane? But if Shane really had called the man somehow…

How else would anyone know to be here?

She nodded towards the ruins, hoping she wasn't making a mistake. "He's in there."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"_You want me to organize what?" Harren asked incredulously._

"_All the families that were a part of the crystal's excavation team. Kill them all, but spare the girls. Bring the girls to Esthar." Adel said this as nonchalantly as if he was asking Harren to fill a bath for him. He returned to looking over a report of Dr. Odine's. _

"_But… why?" was all Harren could think to say._

_Adel's eyes raised and he looked at Harren above the report. They weren't red at the moment, but were no less dangerous for the lack of color. "Because I said so," the sorcerer said, his voice an octave lower than usual. "Are you _questioning _me, my dear knight?"_

_Harren swallowed. "…No."_

"_Good. I expect you to be gone with tomorrow's sun." And suddenly, Harren was of no interest anymore. _

_Harren bowed stiffly and left the room. The hallway was empty. The palace itself had been unusually quiet ever since the war between Esthar and Galbadia had begun. The damn war. Adel hadn't even waited for Macmonth's corpse to cool before mobilizing the army. _

_Harren hesitated for a moment before heading to the private gardens. _

_Sorceress Larissa was where she'd been that morning, seated on the balcony overlooking the enclosed gardens. Harren stepped onto the balcony and opened his mouth, then paused. Larissa had her hands cupped in her lap and swirling just above her palms was energy, barely visible. Larissa's eyes were fixed on it intensely. Feeling like he'd intruded on a private moment, he cleared his throat uncomfortably. _

_Larissa glanced up at him and her eyes hardened. Then the expression was gone and she brought her hands to her chest. The energy nestled in her gentle hold melted into her until it was gone. "Harren."_

_Harren wanted to ask why Larissa had what Dr. Odine called a Guardian Force, and if the scientist was aware of its existence. He wanted to ask why the Sorceress was keeping the thing hidden and close, while allowing the inventor to experiment with any others he found. But he didn't ask any of these things. _

"_My lady," he said, bowing. _

"_Sit." He sat and let the Sorceress rake her eyes over his face. "So he's told you."_

_Harren looked away, over the gardens. He'd come because talking to Larissa was easier these days than talking to Adel, but now that he was here he didn't know what exactly he'd wanted to say. "When did it all change?"_

"_When did what change?"_

_Harren shrugged, self-conscious. "He didn't use to be this…heartless"_

_He heard Larissa chuckle and looked up. She bared her teeth at him. "How long has it been since he pulled you into this coup? Three years now?" Harren nodded stiffy. The sorceress shook her head. If he didn't know better, he might have said it was in pity. But all she said was "He's just been bidding his time." _

_An image of Macmouth's corpse filled his memory until he shook it away. "For what?"_

_Adel's twin didn't answer. She just leaned back into the comfort of her chair._

"_Why?" he blurted. "Why kill the families? Why now?"_

_Larissa didn't move. "Insurance."_

"_Against what?"_

_Larissa turned and looked at him again, as if trying to decide how much truth to tell him. "That crystal is being equipped as a weapon. Any one of those families that has worked on the project can be taken hostage by Galbadia at any point and reveal confidential information. We are preventing the opportunity of such betrayal."_

"_You're killing them for a crime they haven't even committed yet!" he exclaimed, as the reality of it began to dawn on him. This wasn't just a whim of Adel's, then. No, this went deeper, deep into the coup that had been going on for longer than he'd been Adel's knight. _

_Larissa shrugged. "Best to prevent it ever happening."_

"_The children wouldn't know anything."_

"_Children have habits of listening in on their parent's conversations. We will take no chances."_

_Harren had always thought that Larissa only _acted_ indifferent in the face of her twin brother's schemes, but staring at her unconcerned expression now he wasn't so sure that it was an act after all. "And the girls?" he asked, wondering if he really wanted to know. _

_Larissa sighed and closed her eyes briefly. "Eventually, we will need a successor."_

_So he'd be herding dozens of little girls to Esthar so that _one_ could be handpicked. And those that weren't picked? He didn't disillusion himself with the hope that they wouldn't share their family's fate. He felt sick. _

_He hadn't signed up for this when he'd agreed to be Adel's knight and supporter. His actions in the war against Galbadia had been bad enough. But this?_

"_I'd watch your step if I were you, Harren Asgard," Larissa said, and her eyes opened to stare at him as if she knew what he'd just been thinking. "Or one of these days he will find another use for you."_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It wasn't long before the dark skinned man emerged from the ruins, carrying something on his back. Alina squinted and thought she saw a head lolling. Hyne, please let him be okay. Please let him be alive.

She hurried to deactivate the dome she'd put back up when the man had gone, mumbling half-formed prayers as she did. When it vanished, Chayla rushed out to the man, dashing around him in agitated circles. Alina held herself back only with great will. When he was within ten yards of the car, the man stopped and lowered the burden on his back to the ground. And that was the end of her will.

"Shane!" Alina shouted and rushed over to the prone man, shoving Shane's rescuer out of the way. She expected to see blood but there was none. Frantically patting his arms and legs and stomach turned up no injuries either. She fumbled her fingers against his neck, trying to feel for a pulse. Nothing, but she was fumbling, doing it wrong. She leaned down and put an ear to his chest. There. His heart was beating; strong and fast.

Really fast.

She sat back up, blinking tears from her eyes and groaned out a breath. He was alive. Even after whatever had happened, after he'd been lying unconscious in the ruins full of monsters for hours, he was _alive_. She didn't realize how truly afraid she'd been that he'd been dead, until it hit here now that he wasn't.

"You jerk!" she shouted, slamming a hand against his chest, before dissolving into tears again. Somewhere in the back of her mind she recognized Chayla, sitting next to Shane and gripping his left hand. Alina gripped his other hand in her own and let the emotions wash through her, helpless against their turbulent tide.

After a few minutes of this, the dark skinned man spoke up. "What happened?"

She glanced up at him. He was crouched a few feet away. She wiped an arm across her eyes and sniffed, then exhaled out a wet sounding breath and shifted her legs so that she was sitting with her knee against Shane's sides. "He was getting Tonberry knifes. I was watching Chayla and then… he just screamed. Only for a few seconds. I… I tried to go in… but there were..." She trailed off, ducking her head and trying not to cry again. "I couldn't help," she whispered, pain lancing through her at the admission, a knife in the gut.

She felt a small hand on her elbow and looked up. Chayla looked at her with something in her eyes, then took the hand away and returned to watching her father's face. She seemed oddly calm, now that Shane was with them. Alina frowned; something about Chayla's manner bothered her but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Calm was something to emulate though. She needed to stay calm, and not let memories fog her thoughts. She turned back to the man crouched a few feet away. "I'm Alina. Thank you for your help." He nodded but didn't offer up his own name, she noted. "Has this ever happened before?" she asked. "Has he ever activated the alert before?"

The man shook his head, and she belatedly remembered that Chayla had never seen this man.

"You said you've known him for six years?"

The man nodded. "And you?"

"We were neighbors in Timber," she said, looking down into Shane's face. His brows were furrowed and his eyes were moving behind his eyelids. It looked like he was having a nightmare and she put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him a little. But he didn't wake.

"What's wrong with him?" She leaned down and listened to his heartbeat again. It seemed to be racing. "He's not injured is he?"

"Not that I can tell," said the man and suddenly he was next to her, pulling up one of Shane's eyelids and feeling his pulse, worry lining his face. "There are no external injuries, but he did not wake when I tried to rouse him. If there is bleeding in the brain however…"

Alina clutched Shane's hand tighter. What did she do? "It's going to get dark soon. We can't stay here."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Harren squinted up into the sky, trying to judge how much time had passed since he'd started walking this day. Then he scanned the skies themselves._

_He had a bad taste in the back of his throat that hadn't left since he'd left the city three days ago. It was useless, he knew, the walking. But walking was better than sitting around waiting for it. _

_Larissa's warning had almost been enough to keep him on track. He'd made the arrangements and spoken with the troops , and had even started packing his own things when he realized that he really couldn't go through with it. _

_He'd left that night. _

_Now he was just waiting. Waiting and walking. _

_It was midday when Adel landed in the sand behind him, wings blowing the golden grains around briefly. Harren whirled to face the man. "Going for a stroll?" The sorcerer asked as he pulled his black wings in to settle against his back. _

_Harren looked into Adel's eyes and then looked away as red stared back at him. Red eyes were never a good sign. As if anything in the situation could be a good sign. _

_He decided to get right to the point. "I'm not killing those families," he stated. "I'm done." _

_Adel's eyebrows rose. "What makes you think you can just be done?"_

_Harren knew this was it. He'd known it the moment he left. But he tried, nonetheless. "You got what you wanted," he continued, throwing his arm north, towards Esthar. "You don't need me anymore."_

_Adel chuckled and Harren felt a chill go down his back at the sound. "You don't get a say in the manner, I'm afraid."_

_He watched in a detached sort of way as Adel's hand lifted before pain shredded him. _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_**Don't move just yet.**_

Squall didn't think he _could _move.

_**You're body has undergone much stress. **_

"It's going to get dark soon. We can't stay here."

_**I did not expect this.**_

"Daddy?" someone whispered in his ear.

Only when he heard Chayla's and Alina's voices did he realize that the other voice was in his head. _I really am going insane, _he thought tiredly.

_**I am not a hallucination, young man.**_

He tried to focus on the voice through the headache that was crippling him. _You're… Harren_

_**Yes. And you are the knight who killed Adel. I apologize but I rifled through some of your memories to discover his fate. I thought I felt him pass but… I needed to be sure. **_

Squall could only dredge up confusion in response.

_**With him frozen in space for so long, the bond grew stagnant. I could not rely on its weakened sense to assure myself that he was finally gone. **_

Some of what he'd seen in Harren's memories flickered through his mind again. What was going on? Why was the man in his head?

_**Your body seems to have taken my entrance hard. I expected you to have Dr. Odine's implant since you junctioned some of us during the war. And indeed, you do have the implant. I thought it would seal me. **_

_You're a…guardian force? _He hadn't junctioned any guardian forces in five years.

_**I junctioned myself to you. The implant did not seal me however, so I am afraid I am not contained.**_

"Daddy?" Chayla whispered in his ear again and he twitched his hand, trying to reassure her that he was okay, even if _he_ wasn't sure he was.

"Shane? Oh thank Hyne, I think he's waking up."

_**There is another here. **_

"Yes," a male voice said.

Squall snapped his eyes open and lunged up on an elbow, hauling his child close. The action left him winded and he heaved in a few breaths for a moment, dizzy, before he looked behind him to assess the threat.

Kiros raised an eyebrow.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Author's Note:

I'm back! My Peace Corps training is over and now I am at site in Ghana, Africa, ready to begin teaching. And writing, of course, now that the back breaking training is done. My service isn't great and no always reliable but it's there so the updating will continue.

As a note, I have gone through the previous chapters and done some revision. Nothing really noteworthy, just sentences and phrases here and there. But they are there.

I hope you are enjoying the story!

Until the End Playlist, Song 7: Christina Perri - Human


	8. Part 1: Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"_She is going to save you from whatever she thinks you need saving from."_

Alina would drove them to the Centra port where they would catch the last boat over the water to Fisherman's Horizons. Kiros would fly his ship there and meet them at the local hotel with rooms. Squall would sit in the car and let it happen.

Squall let Alina and Kiros take control. Once he'd realized that the third person in the clearing was Kiros he'd allowed himself to slump back into near comatose. They'd had to help him get into the car. He'd made sure to keep Chayla against his side however. It wasn't that he thought Kiros would snatch her up and run off, but… He didn't fully trust the dark skinned man. Couldn't bring himself to, not with the way the man's ill-concealed disapproval smothered him every time he set eyes on Squall.

He wasn't sure he'd have been able to pry Chayla off himself as it was. She'd been clinging to him ever since he'd lunged up in alarm and hadn't loosened her hold once. She was still attached to his jacket as he leaned against the car's passenger side door, waiting as the pain remedies began to take effect and fight off the ache in his head Harren's entry had kindled.

The guardian force was being silent. He seemed to realize that Squall needed time to deal with the present before dealing with him. He'd seemed to realize a lot in the small time that he had been in Squall's head. There was a being in his mind, uncontained, with full access to his every thought and memory. Squall didn't think too hard on it, couldn't think too hard on it. Later.

The window was cool against his cheek as he stared dully out at the darkening sky, an arm around his daughter's back, _not_ thinking.

"What would have happened?" Alina asked suddenly from the driver's seat. He turned his head against the glass until he could see her. She was staring straight ahead, her jaw locked, and he frowned, unsure of what she was referring to. When he didn't say anything, she blew out a breath and shot an unreadable look at him. "To Chayla. What would happened to Chayla if you'd never come back? If you were killed on one of these… jobs."

Something was off about Alina, but he couldn't put a finger on what had shifted, not yet.

"I don't take jobs that are too risky." He said, tightening an arm around Chayla.

The look Alina shot him was dark. "This job wasn't supposed to be risky and look what happened."

Squall shifted uncomfortably. It was true that on his own it would have possibly taken him all night to get back to the car. He'd been so weak after regaining consciousness, so crippled by the migraine that getting past the monsters and out of the ruins would have been a challenge. "I would have made it back," as all he finally said.

"What would have happened if you hadn't?" Alina repeated.

"Aina-" he started, sighing onto the window.

She hissed and took one hand off the wheel, reaching over the console towards him. He tensed, jerking his head towards her fully at the abrupt motion but she only gripped his resting hand and jerked it up into the air, shaking it a little. "That man said you activated this watch. He came because you activated an alarm. You weren't sure you'd make it back, did you?"

Squall tugged his wrist out of her grip. 'It's a precaution."

"One that you've never used before."

Squall glowered at the window. Kiros must have said something if she knew that. What else had the man said? He turned and studied Alina's profile. Something was definitely off. She was being… aggressive. Something he'd never seen out of her before. Her knuckles were white around the steering wheel and her back was ram rod straight. Signs of anger or something else?

Once more, Alina repeated her question. "Tell me the truth Shane. What would have happened if you hadn't come back?"

He looked out of the window at the darkening and barren landscape, then down at Chayla. She was watching him, her expression solemn. How much of this conversation was getting across to her? He pushed some hair out of her face. "My father would take her."

There was silence for a moment and then "So the man…"

"Works for my father," he replied. He wasn't sure that Laguna could keep Chayla safe, not truly. But he was Squall's only hope if… if he wasn't there to protect her. "He would take Chayla to my father." He repeated and tightened his hold on his daughter.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kiros was waiting near the front desk of the hotel when Squall walked in, Alina behind his left shoulder and Chayla asleep in his arms. The dark skinned man gestured them over and gave a key to Alina and a key to Squall. He didn't keep one for himself Squall noted and wondered if the man was returning to Esthar that night. "Shane. I'd like to speak with you alone."

Alina threw up her hands in a disgusted fashion and walked away, not bothering to say a goodnight. Squall frowned after her. She hadn't said anything after her insistent question in the car; not even on the long boat ride. She'd curled up on a seat and ignored him for the entirety of the ride, which was so un-Alina like that he'd begun to worry despite himself.

Had something happened while he was unconscious? Had Kiros said something? He glanced at his father's friend. "What did you say to her?" he asked.

Kiros looked towards Alina's retreating back. "How involved is she?"

Squall exhaled tiredly and turned away, hitching the sleeping Chayla higher on his hip, and looked at the number on his hotel room key. He didn't want to play that kind of game. Kiros followed him as he began to follow the directional signs to the rented room. "I told her nothing, _Shane_." He trailed Squall into the room itself, stepping in behind him as Squall did a quick assessment of the room's security. Small, one bathroom door and one window.

When he heard the lock click into place, he spun, wariness spiking through his tired mind. But the man was only putting a phone to his ear, frowning. When he was satisified that it was ringing, he held the phone out to Squall and motioned for him to take it.

He glanced at Kiros' unreadable expression then took the phone and moved to sit on the only bed, knowing who would be picking up the other line. He didn't have to wait long. The line clicked and Laguna's voice broke over the connection. "Kiros! Where is he? Where is my son?"

Squall could hear the clear panic in that voice and winced. "I'm here."

"Oh, thank _Hyne_! You're alright? Chayla is alright? You're both fine?"

Squall looked down at the messy head of hair against his chest. "We're both fine."

He heard Laguna sigh out on the other end and something creaked as Laguna leaned against it. When the president spoke again his voice was low and controlled, a dangerous edge to it. "Son?"

He didn't think he'd ever heard that tone from Laguna, not directed at himself before. "…Yes?"

"If you _ever_ do that to me again, I'll…"

Squall grunted out a humorless chuckle, then gave into his impulse and lay down on the bed, pulling his feet up onto the sheets without thought to the mess they would make and tucking Chayla close.

He felt the mattress sink near his feet the same time a hand started tugging on his laces. He raised his head to look at Kiros. The man didn't look at him as he tugged off Squall's boots and dropped them to the floor. Squall curled his toes and Kiros tucked his own feet underneath him on the bed, leaning an elbow on his knee, a pose for listening. Squall dropped his head back onto the pillow, unable to bring himself to care much. Whatever he said to Laguna would most likely get back to Kiros eventually anyways.

"What happened?" Laguna asked.

Squall closed his eyes. "A Guardian Force." The thing in his mind pushed forward a little then retracted again. "It junctioned itself to me."

"I… didn't think they could do that."

"It's not contained in the junctioning implant I got as a cadet." He replied, then added "It wasn't a normal junctioning." He didn't mention the memories he'd received from the being.

"What do you mean not contained?" Laguna demanded, his voice rising an octave. "Which Guardian Force? They were all brought here to Esthar after that fiasco with the lost memories. There shouldn't be any loose in the world."

He'd already had that thought himself, on the boat. "There was one that was never junctioned, never taken. Odin."

Laguna cursed on the other end. "Unjunction it. Now."

Squall opened his eyes. The window was across from him and he could see a part of the moon through the glass. "I don't have the equipment."

As a SeeD, he'd junctioned the GFs by letting the energy absorb into his skin, at the back of the head preferably, as close to the seal implanted into his brain as possible, where it could then be sucked into the seal. The seal contained the being from the rest of his mind but allowed him to summon its power and use it's abilities to boost his own. To unjunction, one had to hold an inanimate seal – designed by Dr. Odine – to the skin near the seal and it would draw the being out and into the new seal. Something about a magnetic force.

He wasn't sure it would work anyways. Odin - if that was who it was - wasn't in the seal to be drawn out like a draw seal was built for.

Laguna seemed to be struggling with himself. "Kiros can be here and back there with one by tomorrow morning," he finally said.

"It's fine," Squall assured. Laguna wouldn't be able to explain taking the seal from Dr. Odine's labs. "The Guardian… Odin… said he junctioned himself to me because he wanted to know the fate of Adel. I'm sure he'll unjunction himself now that he knows."

"Adel? Why the hell would he be interested in that?"

Squall stared at the part of the moon he could see. Why indeed? Why was a guardian force interested in Adel? But the guardian force had the memories of a man. A man who had been a knight to Adel. But who and what Adel was, he wasn't sure anymore. It was all such a mess of confusion in his head at that moment that he didn't share any of his suspicions or fears. "I don't know," he said instead.

"So you can talk to it? It says it'll leave?"

"Yes," he said, because why would Odin stay? He'd gotten what he'd wanted.

_**There are still many unanswered question.**_

Squall winced. _Not now. Please. _

Kiros was watching him. He knew the man hasn't missed his reaction. Odin retreated.

"I don't like this," Laguna was muttering. "I don't like this at all. Dammit, that thing knocked you unconscious." Squall shifted onto his back, resettling Chayla against his side and sighed. He should have known Kiros had given Laguna the details.

"I'm _fine_," he countered. He could see Kiros opening his mouth to disagree and forestalled him by giving a little of the truth. "The junctioning was a little… forceful. I was winded, but I'm fine now. Like I _said_." He was exhausted and ached everywhere, but he didn't add that. Laguna would never end this call if he thought something was wrong.

"And Chayla?"

His daughter's fingers were still wrapped around his jacket's hem; she had yet to let go of her hold on him, even in sleep. "I scared her," he said truthfully, regretfully.

"You scared everyone," Laguna muttered. Squall's thoughts twisted to Alina again. Was that it? Was she acting weird because she'd been scared? "Kiros said you left Chayla with a woman." Laguna continued. Once it would have been weird that Laguna's thoughts had mirrored the direction his own thoughts had moved to, but Squall had long ago had to accept that Laguna's mind worked a lot like his own did. "Is she the one I heard over the phone? You've never left Chayla with someone before." Squall glowered and rolled his head towards Kiros. The man shrugged unapologetically. "Squall?"

"I don't like to leave Chayla alone," Squall muttered, running a finger over the back of Chayla's hand as she shifted against him.

"You know, you don't have to keep taking these jobs. I told you that I would take care of all your finances."

"You can't sustain it," Squall argued. "Not forever."

The silence on the other end of the phone was heavy and Squall felt Kiros' eyes on him. He frowned, uneasy at the reaction and steered the conversation away from that topic. "It allows me to retain my skill," he said, knowing that was something Laguna could relate to. In reality, he did it so often because it got him away from the house. Too much time in one place, even in a place he could call home, put him on edge.

"Is it… safe? Leaving Chayla with someone?"

"I've talked to Chayla about it. She knows Alina can't know."

"Alina, huh?" there was something close to teasing in that question.

"It's not like that," Squall retorted, annoyed.

Laguna chuckled slightly. "I know. I know. Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Well, if you trust the woman then that's all that matters. I'm sure it will be good for Chayla to have a womanly figure in her life. Has she been around long?"

"A while," was all Squall said, stifling a sudden yawn.

Laguna hummed. He must had heard the yawn however because he moved away from the conversation. "I'll send a team to seal that guardian force once it's unjunctioned again. You were in the Centra ruins? It will probably return there. They all seem to have had preferred spots." Squall frowned. Something about sealing Odin bothered him but he didn't follow the thread of thought. Later. "Expect a call from me," Laguna continued. "You can always call if anything comes up. I can always _return_ a call."

Squall closed his eyes and gave a sound of agreement. But he and Laguna both knew he would never call. Laguna had made the offer before, many times, but it was too risky to leave a trail that might become too noticeable.

Squall listened to Laguna's goodbyes and murmured something resembling the same in reply before disconnecting and tossing the phone to Kiros. He should probably thank the man for pulling his body out of those ruins – and how he hadn't been mauled by a monster while unconscious he had no idea – but he doubted the man cared that much for a thank you from him. He never had, even when he'd gifted Squall his katals.

He cracked an eye open and nodded at Kiros and left it at that.

The man nodded back, then glanced at Chayla. But he didn't say what Squall expected him to say. "His retirement funds _will_ go empty, if he keeps withdrawing from the account." Squall nodded and looked away from the censure in those eyes. "Do you have some kind of plan, or are you just guessing?"

"I have a plan," Squall lied to the ceiling.

Kiros exhaled a noisy breath and the mattress dipped as the man stood up. "I hope, for yours and Laguna's sake, that it works." Then he unlocked the door and slipped out, closing it gently behind him.

Squall pried Chayla's hands off his jacket and got up to lock the door behind the man. Then he leaned his forehead against the wood.

_**This child…**_

"Not now." He whispered.

Odin acquiesced and retreated again.

Squall left the door and laid down next to Chayla again. He smoothed black hair behind her ear and watched the rise and fall of her small chest for a little bit before he pulled the blanket at the bottom of the bed up over the two of them.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I got your message about looking into Adel." Selphie said over the phone. "What was that about? Did something come up?"

Zell looked out of the car window at the rain soaked streets of Esthar rushing by. "She's becoming an anomaly."

"Oh, big word," Selphie teased.

Zell mumbled offense at that but smiled. "Seriously, though. She's our beginning, isn't she? You haven't found any information on any sorceresses before her, right?"

"Just one. And it's not very informative."

"And yet she doesn't fit the pattern of the ones we know. Her size for one, and her red eyes."

"Well there's not much information on her," Selphie said, sighing. "Anyone that was close enough to really know her was killed in the first Sorceress war. Quis and I already gathered what we could get on her, in the beginning. But I looked again, like you requested."

"Anything?"

"Well you know the first broadcasting that Vinzer Deling gave when we were on that mission in Timber five or six years ago?"

"Yea?"

"Did you ever notice the static on the broadcasting system?"

"Not really. Something to do with Adel's tomb interfering with the radio waves as it orbited, right?"

"Yes. Well, turns out that there were sometimes words in the static."

"Words?" he exclaimed and the driver's eyes flashed to his in the review mirror. Zell motioned that all was fine to the black haired man that had picked him up from the train station, and refocused on the conversation. "What do you mean?"

"I was looking through the footage of the broadcasting again where the Galbadia president was talking about a sorceress becoming the new Deling ambassador – trying to pick up any more clues. Usually I tune it to the footage itself but this time I let it run from the very beginning. At first it was just static, like usual, but then the static changed to letters. A bunch of letters all mashed together in one continuous line that scrolled along the screen. I thought I saw some distinct words here and there though so I paused the footage and tried to pick the words out. Turns out they were _all_ words, pushed together and repeated over and over again."

"What did they say?" Zell asked.

"I'm alive. Bring me back there. I'll never let you forget me."

"You think it was Adel?"

"Probably. If her magic mixed with the interference system somehow, it's possible that she would have been able to send that message."

"To who?"

"I don't know. Maybe no one. Or anyone." Then Selphie sighed and added "But, I doubt this really helps all that much,"

"Maybe." Zell argued, but he knew it didn't, not really. The car turned a corner and Dr. Odine's labs came into view. "Looks like I'm almost there. I'll let Quistis and Irvine know what you found."

"Say hi to them for me. And don't let Dr. Odine kidnap you!"

They disconnected and Zell chuckled. He'd almost forgotten how much Dr. Odine scared Selphie. She'd refused to go with them to any of their meetings with the scientist, convinced he would kidnap her for experimentation.

The smile slipped off his face and he sighed. Going to Dr. Odine had always been a last resort, even if it shouldn't have been, because _none_ of them liked the man much. He had a way of looking at you like you were one of his test subjects, trapped in some kind of experiment that he was taking notes on. Even Squall had had reservations about the man. He'd refused to let the doctor oversee Rinoa's pregnancy, even when they'd moved to Esthar and away from Dr. Kadowaki.

It didn't help that Dr. Odine wasn't all that helpful when they did see him. He hadn't given them much that first time they'd talked to him, right after the deaths of their friends, when Garden wanted to know if Rinoa had transferred her magic before dying. He'd only said that the line of power was unilineal and that it could only be transferred to females and then told them to stop bothering him. Still hollow with their grief they had, leaving Rinoa's corpse behind to be preserved.

The next time they'd gone to him for answers had been after the first sighting of the child sorceress in Esthar where he'd confirmed that a sorceress had to transfer her magic to die. When asked why he hadn't said so before, he'd countered with a statement that they hadn't asked that question. Only with President Lorie's express command had the doctor lent them his texts on Sorceresses so that they could find the information they needed without having to go through the scientist, since getting answers out of Odine was like pulling teeth.

Not that the texts had helped them all that much.

And here they were, back at the labs, hoping they had the right kinds of questions this time. He had a feeling it was going to be a long afternoon.

Quistis and Irvine were waiting for him when the car stopped in front of the doors. He said his thanks and stepped out, hunching his shoulders against the rain that soaked them, and hurried through the door Quistis was holding open for him.

"Zell," she greeted, smiling slightly.

He stepped forward and hugged her tightly for a moment. "How's Esthar?" he asked as he stepped back.

"Fine," Quistis responded, looking past him out towards the rain soaked city. "Crowded." Then her eyes met his again and her face lit up in happiness. "The research though...Zell, these baby monsters… it's incredible."

Zell smiled, glad that Quistis demeanor was so bright. "You'll have to tell me all about it once this meeting is over." He glanced at the brunette on his other side. "Are we all set to see him?" he asked stiffy. He hadn't quite forgiven the man for keeping the truth of Rinoa and Squall's death hidden all these years.

Irvine nodded and glanced at Quistis, who gestured for them to follow her. "This way. We're scheduled to meet him on the third floor in meeting room A. I don't know how Laguna got the doctor to leave his research alone for an hour, but he's guaranteed us that full hour with the man without distractions." She pushed through a side door after swiping a card to open it, and moved to the stairs.

"Lorie is joining us, right?" Zell asked as they climbed the steps, bypassing the second floor.

Irvine made a frustrated sound behind him. "His aide said something came up."

Zell frowned. "Well, Ellone will be there then, right?"

This time it was Quistis who answered, pausing on the stairs and throwing Irvine a black glare over her shoulder. "Ellone hasn't come out of her apartments since her _session_ with Irvine earlier yesterday."

"Oh." They continued up to the third floor in silence while Zell rubbed the back of his neck, uneasy. "So… it's just us and Odine?"

Quistis opened the third floor door and looked back at him briefly, her brows tight. "Yes." Then she walked out into the bright hall.

"Awesome," Zell muttered, following her out of the stairwell. He glanced back towards Irvine. "Ready for this?" he asked. Irvine grinned humorlessly.

When they entered the room that have been prearranged, Dr. Odine was already in the room, looking at something he'd pulled up on the giant screen on the back wall and muttering to himself.

"Dr. Odine," Quistis called, closing the door behind them.

The scientist turned, eyes narrowed at them all. 'Ah, ze SeeD. Back to interrupt me again. Vell, sit. Sit." He waved at the table in the center of the room.

Zell settled into a seat between Quistis and Irvine as Dr. Odine settling into a chair across from them, already tapping his fingers impatiently on the table. He had turned off the screen he'd been looking at and it seemed that indeed, Lorie had somehow convinced the doctor to speak to them without anything to distract himself.

Odine seemed not to have aged at all. Zell thought he could see more grey in the black hair, and maybe some more wrinkles around the eyes, but beyond that, he looked like the same mad scientist he'd been during the war. Good genes or synthetic work?

Zell decided he didn't want to know. He shuddered and looked away from the man, already creeped out by the way the doctor was looking at them over his glasses. Zell turned and glanced at Irvine, hoping the brunette would get the conversation started.

Irvine must have decided to start with an easy question. "You said that the powers of a sorceress are unilineal."

"Yes. Zat is stated in ze texts." The doctor sighed and slumped back into his seat, eyes moving back towards the screen he'd been looking at before. "I gave you zese texts, like ze president vished. Vhy are you bothering me?"

Irvine leaned forward over the table a little. "And yet, you're aware that Adel and Edea were both Sorceresses at the same time."

Odine's eyes snapped back to them. "Ah. So zey were. Zat iz vhy you are here?" He put a finger to his chin, tapping it a few times, his gaze distant – as if the he'd never even noticed the fact before. Zell frowned. How good would the docotor's information be if he didn't even notice when his own theories were being contradicted? "Hmm. Zat is a puzzle. Of course, Ultimecia traveled back into time to give ze power to Edea. Ze effect zat time travel…. Zat could change zings. Many zings."

They lost him to his mutters and suddenly he leapt out of his seat and began to pace. He seemed agitated, excited suddenly. Damn, had Irvine hit the head of the nail with that one question? He raised an eyebrow at Irvine, who just shrugged, looking baffled.

Zell watched the doctor for a moment. Maybe it hadn't been Irvine's question. Maybe, without the distraction of his research before him, the doctor was listening long enough to give them proper answers? He reminded himself to thank Laguna Lorie and settled into his seat to wait the doctor out as he muttered things to himself.

Suddenly, the doctor focused on them again, leaning forward over his vacated chair. "Vho did Adel transfer her magic to, vhen you SeeD killed her?"

"Rinoa Heartily," Zell contributed.

"Impossible. She vas already a sorceresses." The doctor returned to his seat and began drumming his fingers again.

"It couldn't have been anyone else," Irvine argued.

"A Sorceress cannot be infected vith ze power if she iz already infected. Zere must have been another female somewhere in the vicinity."

"There was no other woman." Irvine growled.

Zell was trying to think back, to remember if there had been anyone else in the vicinity. Fujin had been there but she'd run off with Raijin. Rinoa, Quistis, Selphie, and Ellone had been the only other females near the Lunatic Pandora before or after the fight. But the latter three had obviously _not_ received the magic. He refocused on the doctor and echoed Irvine. "There wasn't anyone else."

Dr. Odine leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms. "A Sorceress cannot be given ze power twice." He repeated, his voice tinged with annoyance.

"How can you be so sure?" Quistis questioned. "There's nothing that says that in the texts you gave us. Or in any of the other books I've read."

The doctor frowned. "Sorceress Adel told me herself."

Zell palmed his face and sighed. "You didn't mention that in your thesis," Quistis accused, her voice tight. "I read that thing front to back and _that_ was never mentioned."

Odine's brow knitted and then he shrugged. "Some information vas bound to get lost in ze research. Zat vas a very busy time for me."

Irvine made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. "Did you leave anything else out?"

Odine shot an annoyed glance at the sharpshooter. "I'm sure I vould not know."

Zell interrupted before Irvine could say something to get them kicked out. "We had a theory. About Adel's transfer. If, _before_ time compression, Adel gave her power to Edea who gave it to Rinoa. Wouldn't the power that Rinoa gave to Ultimecia, now, after time compression, be the same power that Adel had? If it was the same strand, then couldn't both powers have merged when Adel gave her power to Rinoa?"

"Time iz a tricky zing. It iz not az easy to parse az you are trying to do." Dr. Odine left his seat again and went to look out of the one window in the room, overlooking the sky scraper buildings at the heart of the city. "By traveling back into time, Ultimecia has changed ze reality of ze world, tilted it into an alternate reality. It iz impossible to say vho Adel gave her powers to in zat other reality. If she vould have _ever_ given her powers to someone."

'What do you mean?" Zell asked.

Dr. Odine turned and sneered at them. "The seal zat I designed to hold Adel vas one of my best masterpieces. Trapped in ze seal, but still alive, she vas prevented from transferring her powers. If Ultimecia hadn't dissolved ze seal and contrived to bring it down vith ze lunar cry it iz likely zat ze power vould have stayed trapped in Adel's body for ze rest of forever."

Zell heard Quistis's breath go out in a whoosh next to him, and knew his face was as slack as what he saw on Irvine's. Hyne's Breath. Had they really been that close to being in a world rid of the sorceress power? Zell tried to control his expression. It didn't matter, after all; Ultimecia had destroyed that chance. He felt his face getting hot as anger at the future tyrant surged through him.

Dr. Odine was still talking, looking up at the ceiling as if in thought. "By possessing Sorceress Heartily to free Adel and zen possessing Sorceress Adel and leading her to her death, Ultimecia ensured zat ze power vas passed to someone."

"Rinoa," Irvine assured.

"No, boy! Aren't you listening? She vas already a sorceress. No, Adel vould have given her power to someone else; vhomever Ultimecia directed her to."

"So there's another sorceress out there somewhere?" Quistis asked, and Zell could hear the shrill note of panic in her voice. Zell stayed still, wondering. Could it be possible? Could it…

"Very likely," Dr. Odine said and began pacing again, muttering. "Yes… If Ms. Heartily received…. Ultimecia could have been ensuring…hmmm. I'll have to pull zose notes out. Time travel…"

Zell, Quistis and Irvine looked at each other.

"There's been no indication," Irvine whispered.

"Could Ultimecia be _Adel's_ successor?" Quistis whispered back. "We killed her five years ago. If this child sorceress-"

"She would _still_ have been a baby when she received the powers." Irvine countered and then clenched the hand that he had on the table into a fist in clear frustration. "There was no one _there_, besides Rinoa!"

"Maybe we missed something." Quistis' eyes darted from one corner of the room to the other. "How far away would someone have to be for the transfer to work?"

Zell watched them argue about it, his thoughts on the drawing in his pocket. He touched it through his pocket, felt it crinkle slightly. "What if… What if the child we're chasing isn't Ultimecia?" He asked softly and Quistis' and Irvine's eyes snapped to him.

'What do you mean?" Quistis asked, wariness suffusing her tone, and he realized his voice had been too hopeful.

He took his hand from his pocket carefully, tried to control his racing heartbeat. "If we're assuming that the child is Ultimecia... Ultimecia gave the magic to Edea who gave it to Rinoa. If we're assuming this child got the magic from Rinoa and that she's Ultimecia… then that would create a time loop, a circle. If this child _isn't_ Ultimecia-"

"Ah!" Dr. Odine suddenly exclaimed, rounding the table and slapping Zell on the shoulder. Zell recoiled but the doctor was already on his way back around the table again. "A time loop. Hmmm…" He crossed his arms behind his back, before rounding on them again, his eyes oddly bright. "Ms. Heartily had a child, did she not?"

"A stillborn." Irvine commented quietly. "It was…malformed. Doctor, we showed you the reports four years ago."

Dr. Odine's brows furrowed again then smoothed out. "Ah yes. I remember now. Zere vas a grave. Hmmmm…."

Zell watched as Dr. Odine's eyes darted around the room, his lips moving but not making any sounds. He had no idea what was going through the man's mind. His questions seemed random, pieces that didn't match up. What theories was he putting together?

"So, which one is Ultimecia?" Quistis asked after a moment of silence. "If there are two of them now."

'Wait a minute," Irvine said, raising a hand in a stopping motion, and using the other to massage the bridge of his nose. "If, theoretically, Adel would never have transferred her powers how did Ultimecia get her magic in the first place?"

Dr. Odine hummed and his pacing quickened. "Now zat iz ze question, isn't it?"

"There isn't a _third_ strand out there, is there?" Zell asked, half in joke.

"No, no," Dr. Odine waved his hand at Zell, and he breathed out a soft sigh of a relief. "Time travel may have created a clone of ze magic, but for another split to occur? I do not conceive of how it could be done." He paced some more. "Of course, it depends on vhen Ultimecia receives ze magic. She may not have them yet."

Zell touched his pocket again. "You don't think either of the two is her?"

Dr. Odine's eyes seemed to look deep into his soul and then the doctor looked away and shrugged. "It could be either or neither."

"Does it matter?" Zell expected that type of comment from Irvine, so when it came from Quistis he turned and glanced at her in surpise. She met his eyes, frowning. "If these two aren't her, then one of them gives her the magic, and she appears in a few years. Our objective doesn't change."

"So which one do we go after?" Zell asked.

"We go after both of them." Irvine answered.

"How?" Zell demanded, twisting to look over at Irvine. "You said yourself. There's been no indication that there's even another sorceress on the loose. Whoever she is, she's keeping a low profile."

"So we continue looking for the child sorceress and wait until the other one makes a move. We'll broaden the security. Start looking in each city for some hint, some presence."

"We'd need half of SeeD to pull that off," Zell muttered.

"A third, at least", Irvine agreed. "I'll debrief XU today. She'll approve the man power, you know she will."

"What's XU's plan?" Quistis asked. "How does she plan on killing Ultimecia?"

Zell inhaled a breath and looked away from Irvine's eyes. "We don't have orders that far ahead."

"Who the hell knows with XU," Irvine muttered. "I'm sure she has some plan that she hasn't seen fit to tell us."

"You can't just kill her," Dr. Odine interrupted, exasperation in his voice. "She vill just transfer her powers to another host."

"What if she's in a sealed room when she'd killed?" Irvine asked. "Or… what if no one is around? Do they die?" Zell knew Irvine had moved to thoughts of Rinoa when he added that last part.

Dr. Odine stopped his pacing and put his hands on the back of the one of the chairs, leaning over it. "No. Zat vas vhy I built ze seal. A dying sorceress prevented from transferring vould continue to die for az long az it takes to find a successor."

Zell closed his eyes, thinking about Rinoa drowning in that river for who knows how long. He wished Irvine hadn't brought it up. "Is this something else Adel told you?"

"I pieced it together from zings she said over ze years and her fervor for finding a successor."

So Squall _had_ assumed right. Something he'd seen or heard when he followed Ultimecia back to the orphanage in their past had caused him to assume the immortality of the transfers. Had Ultimecia said something? Had Edea said something?

Had _Edea_ known something about it? She'd transferred her powers to Rinoa after all, when she'd thought she was dying. Why hadn't she said something? Why hadn't Squall said something when Rinoa clearly thought she could take the magic with her to the death?

He couldn't see Squall jeopardizing Rinoa's safety like that.

"How did Adel know so much?" Quistis asked suddenly. "We can't find any records of previous sorceresses. Where did she learn so much about Sorceresses?"

"You von't find much outside of ze texts I lent you. I've already looked, I spent my vhole first year in Esthar looking. Adel had found zem all first, and destroyed zem."

"Destroyed them!" Quistis exclaimed and she looked like someone had punched her in the gut.

"Destroyed or hid zem." Dr. Odine allowed. "Any archive, any library zat once held relevant texts all gave ze same story. A young red haired voman vould appear and vithin ze week, ze books vould be gone. All over ze world."

"But why?"

Dr. Odine looked at Quistis over his glasses, and grinned. "Power? Greed? Vho knows."

"Do you know why Adel had red eyes? Or why she was so large?" Zell asked, drawing the man's attention away from Quistis. "Edea, Ultimecia and … and Rinoa all had amber eyes."

Dr. Odine pulled the chair he was leaning over out and sat in it. "I only ever saw ze red eyes towards ze end." The doctor admitted, steepling his fingers in front of his chin and frowning once more. "She vas gone from Esthar for two veeks, and vhen she came back she vas changed; larger; meaner; ze tyrant zat ze books paint her az." He looked at them, annoyance flashing in his eyes again. "Vhy do you zink I built ze seal, after years of vorking for her?"

"The seal that you built to seal Adel," Zell asked, eying the scientist. "Can you fix it?" If they couldn't just kill the Sorceresses, they'd have to seal her.

"It iz already fixed."

"What do you mean already fixed?" Irvine asked, startled into leaning forward.

"Ze president commissioned me to do it, five years ago after ze war."

"Why didn't he tell Garden?"

"It vas Garden zat requested it. Your Commander Leonhart signed ze request if I am not mistaken."

Zell sat back into his seat. Could it be that Squall had _had_ a plan then? Him and Edea?

Irvine opened his mouth, but whatever he had been about to ask Zell would never know, because at that moment, the door was shoved open and the President of Esthar strode in. He took them all in at a glance. "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut this short. Dr. Odine?"

Laguna Lorie looked terrible. There were dark rings under his eyes and his cheeks were an unusual shade of grey. He must have been running hands through his hair often because it was in disarray and his causal clothing was wrinkled. He didn't seem to notice any of it.

He waited as Dr. Odine hurried towards him, then herded the scientist out of the room. "I want all the notes you have on the Guardian Forces. Now." He was saying as the door shut behind him.

Zell glanced at Quistis, then Irvine. "Now what?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

There was someone waiting for him when he trudged up the stairs to the apartment, leaning on the wall next to his door. He paused at the top of the stairs and she turned her eyes on him. Auburn hair, green eyes, tall, no visible weapons but what looked like toned muscles under the clothing. She looked slightly familiar. He was deciding if he could reach for the katas in the duffel bag without putting Chayla down when the woman spoke.

"My name is Denna. I'm Alina's sister."

The familiarity clicked into place and he relaxed his tensing muscles. The sudden adrenaline seeped away, leaving him cold and resigned. He nodded tiredly at the door and Denna moved away so he could open it.

He led Denna in and bolted the door behind her. He dropped the duffel bag, wincing a little as the metal inside clanged loudly against the floor upon impact. Denna turned from assessing the apartment at the sound and raised her eyebrows. "What's in there?"

He didn't answer her. He left her in the living room and went into the bedroom, thinking to put Chayla down on her bed, but as soon as he leaned down and loosened his arms a little she shrieked and tightened her grip.

"Shhh," he hushed, straightening reluctantly. "Chayla, it's okay. I'm right here." He rubbed her back and she quieted. "Can I put you down?"

The black hair shook back and forth violently.

"Look. It's your bed. See? Can I put you on your bed?"

Her only response was the tightening of her arms. He sighed. "How about daddy's bed?"

"No."

He loosened his arms, but she just clung to his front determinedly. He shifted her to a more comfortable hold and looked at his bed longingly for a moment before he turned and wandered reluctantly back out into the living room. Better to get this over with.

Denna had sat down on the loveseat. Ignoring his dusty, two day old pants, he eased himself down onto the couch opposite her. He watched as she looked him up and down, taking everything in. He knew how he must look. It was probably not the best night for her to be assessing him like this. Her eyes kept drifting to Chayla, who was keeping her face buried in Squall's jacket. He hoped Denna would just assume it was a tantrum.

"Alina?" she finally asked.

"On her way home." With only a short, stilted goodbye at that. He'd asked her on the drive home if she was okay, wondering if he could understand why she was being so quiet but she'd only said yes and ignored him again.

Denna nodded. "Alina calls you Shane," she said, almost as a question but not quite.

"Yes. That's my name," he replied, watching her closely.

She stared at him, then around at the apartment again. "Shane. I want you to understand something." She looked back and he nodded when she didn't continue. She pursed her lips. "Alina is fragile. She has had a…. bad history with a friend. It influences her now, colors the way she looks at things and acts. It blinds her to potential risks."

He stopped her with a raised hand. "I think Alina should be the one telling this story."

"She won't tell it. She's blocked it out." Denna leaned forward on the couch. "You must understand it if you truly wish to be her friend. But first," and she sat up straight again, her eyes hard. "You must make _me_ understand."

He eyed her warily. He knew what the woman was implying. "What are your questions?" he asked, not agreeing to anything.

"Are you a criminal?"

He might have laughed, once upon a time. "No."

"And yet, you are being tracked."

"Yes."

'Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does when those people come knocking at my door."

Squall's every miniscule movements stopped as the breath locked in his throat. _Shit_.

They had followed Alina to Deling after all.

"Who?" he croaked.

"A blonde man with a tattoo on his face."

The breath left Squall in a rush and he sagged into the couch, bringing up a hand to hide his face, not wanting this woman to see the emotions rushing through him. Chayla shifted against him, choosing that time to speak up. "Do we haf to move again?"

Squall clenched his eyes shut then controlled his expression. He lowered his hand. Chayla was looked up at him from his lap, no longer hiding her face but looking between him and Alina's sister, her brows drawn in despair. She turned back to him. "Do we?" she demanded.

"Hush," he whispered. She stared at him, her bottom lip trembling. He looked over her head at Denna. "Will you… tell me what the man asked about? Please?"

Denna stared at him for a long moment before she shrugged and looked away. "He was looking for Alina. Said he wanted to question her about her neighbors in Timber. Asked if she had said anything about them to me. About a child and a man." She looked back at them, pausing significantly. Squall held his breath. He knew Alina would have said something about him to Denna. "I said that I knew nothing," she finished.

He stared at her. "So…"

"So he left. Asked that Alina get in contact with him and left."

Squall looked down into Chayla's eyes. There was nothing in those questions that indicated they knew he was here. Maybe they hadn't seen Alina on her little trip after all. She'd lived in the condo next to his. They'd want to ask her if she'd seen anything for that single reason, would follow any forwarded address she left. If they didn't know he was here…

"So," Denna said. "Tell me why SeeD is after you and I'll decide if I need to tell you Alina's story after all." She didn't speak the threat that she could have; that she could out him with one call. Whether she would do it, Squall wasn't sure. But he knew his and Chayla's lives were now in this woman's hands.

His eyes flickered to the duffel bag near the door but he forced his eyes away. Instead he looked at Alina's sister. What kind of person was she? "I don't know you well enough to trust you," he finally said then waited to see what she would say in response.

"I'm not looking to destroy your lives," Denna answered, watching him watching her. "I'm just trying to protect my sister."

Squall looked away, glancing at Chayla's face, then at the duffel bag again. He twined a hand around Chayla's, who gripped back hard in response. Finally he looked back up at the auburn haired woman and covered Chayla's ear, pressing her other against his chest so that she wouldn't be able to hear his soft words. She squirmed once but then stilled when he didn't let up.

"I was supposed to kill my daughter when she was born." He spoke slowly, keeping an eye on Denna's expression. "I didn't."

Denna's expression slipped and she glanced down at the child in his lap, before looking back up and meeting his eyes. "Why?" she whispered, hesitantly.

"There's… bad history in the family. They worried that she would follow in her ancestor's footsteps."

"They would do that?" Denna asked, aghast. "Kill her for something she hasn't even done yet?"

Squall frowned. "Armies do it all the time."

For some reason that made the woman's eyes go dark and her gaze turn inward. Squall waited, watching her face. When she refocused on him, there was pain in her eyes. She sighed. "Alina had a friend that died in the Timber Resistance."

Squall let his breath out slowly as he took that in.

Denna leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees, linking her fingers and settling her chin on them. "Bethania. Alina introduced her to Darrick, someone from the same school they went to. For a while she was the happy third wheel to their relationship but then they graduated school and Darrick was conscripted into the Galbadian army. The army had started to do that, conscript the young boys of Timber." She glanced up at him then returned to looking somewhere past his left shoulder.

"Bethania's parents were part of the resistance. The Timber Lynxes faction. Bethania had told Darrick. Darrick told Alina that he was going to tell the army, after some fight he'd had with the girl. She didn't believe him. And the next day, the army showed up at Bethania's house and wiped the faction out, down to the children: Bethania and her little sister included. Alina watched it from our house across the road."

Squall sighed as things, actions, began to fall into place.

Denna straightened, watching him now. "Alina has never forgiven herself for not warning Bathania. You have to understand that she has a hero complex; she has to save everyone and everything. I don't know how you're friendship started with my sister, or what triggered the change, but you are now a project for her."

She smiled, but it never reached her eyes. "She is going to save you from whatever she thinks you need saving from. Even if it kills her."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"How did the conference call with XU go?" Quistis asked as Zell and Irvine came out of the media room.

"Oh, she's thrilled," Zell muttered, swinging an arm around Quistis shoulder and sighing dramatically against her shoulder.

Irvine grunted. "She's talking to Galbadia and Trabia about the manpower required for stationing a SeeD or two in each city. She's also going to send a request in that Dr. Odine build a second seal.

"Where are we going to put these seals?" Quistis asked, shrugging Zell off. "With _two_ orbiting in space, we'd never have broadcasting capabilities again, not even with Dollet's upgraded transmission tower."

With a start Zell remembered his conversation with Selphie earlier that day. He rubbed at the back of his neck "Hey, Selphie found something earlier. I forgot to mention."

Quistis turned to him so quickly he feared she'd pulled something. "Found something?" she demanded.

He explained Selphie's discovery, and both Irvine and Quistis' faces fell.

"Oh," Quistis said, sighing and looking down at her hands.

Irvine shared a look with Zell over her head then nudged Quistis' arm. "Hey. Why don't you show us that monster research you've been so interested in since you disappeared into these labs."

Quistis looked up at them, frowning as if she knew what Irvine was trying to do. But she acquiesced and turned her frown into a smile. 'Sure. It's this way." She nodded her head down the hallway and turned to head that way.

"Ah… actually I'll let the two of you go." Zell said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'm gonna head to the cafeteria and grab a bite to eat. You can tell me about it later."

Both of his friends rolled their eyes, but turned obligingly and walked down the hall, leaving him behind. He waited until they were out of sight and then turned towards the Sorceronic wing of the floor.

He'd only been to the room once before, so it took him a while to find it. It didn't help that many of the rooms in the wing didn't have observation windows to peek inside of and gauge what was held inside. Eventually though, he settled on one door that he thought looked vaguely familiar.

Hoping that Quistis had clearance to the room, he swiped her card at the door's panel.

It slid open without a sound and Zell hurried inside, pocketing the stolen card.

He stared at Rinoa from near the door for a while, taking in her features. She looked peaceful, her features smooth, like she was just resting for a time. He tried to picture her with amber eyes, but the image wouldn't form. He shook his head and paced forward until he was before the frost covered glass. This close, she didn't look peaceful. She just looked dead. He could see the ice preserving her body coating her lashes in frost, but there was no redness under her skin.

He blinked his eyes then reminded himself why he'd come.

He pulled the drawing of the child sorceress out of his pocket, unfolding it carefully so that it didn't rip on the soft creases, and held it up next to Rinoa's face.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall sat on the bed watching Chayla sleep under her chocobo blanket, as he went over the conversation with Denna in his head. She hadn't stayed long after her revelation, leaving with _"If you weren't planning on telling Alina about your past as SeeD, you should do so now. They're going to return and want to speak with her soon._

He'd have to say something. And he'd have to see if she could lie well enough to a SeeD's face to get away with talking to them. If she couldn't… He wasn't sure if she could put them off forever. He'd need to keep an eye on Denna as well. She'd assured him again that she didn't intend to make a call about him, but… she would need to be monitored.

He would invite Alina over tomorrow. It would give him a chance to assess her new behavior in light of what he now knew.

_**It sounds likely that the mishap in the ruins triggered memories she did not wish to remember. I apologize if I have upset the balance between you two.**_

Squall looked down at the hand he had spread on the bedsheets, fingers pushing down into the fabric. _It was bound to happen sooner or later. No one can keep something like that locked up forever. _

_**No. **_

Squall flexed his fingers. _You haven't unjunctioned yourself yet._

_**You have not asked your questions yet. I think it is only fair that I stay to give you what answers I can after I rifled through your mind so selfishly. **_He paused and then added _**Your mind is holding me better than expected. I would have left if I felt my presence was too much of a strain. When not contained in the seal, the strain of one of our presences in a human mind usually….**_ but he stopped there and did not continue.

_Kills people? _Squall finished, thinking back to Harren's memory of Dr. Odine and Larissa's conversation in the council room.

_**Where did you hear that?**_

Squall clenched his hand into a fist and looked away, first at the closed window then towards the bathroom door. _I… see memories. Sometimes. I saw some of yours. _

Odin was silent for so long that Squall began to wonder if the being had retreated again. He worried at his bottom lip, bringing his knee up and leaning against it.

_**Well… I suppose I deserve it after going through yours.**_

_I can't control it._

_**It is new then? This ability?**_

Squall hunched into his knee and squeezed his eyes closed, wondering why he was blurting it all out to the being that had invaded his mind. _It started four years ago, but it's happening more often now._

_**What happened four years ago?**_

Squall's eyes snapped open and he stared at Chayla's back over his knee. _Harren. You were… Adel's knight, right?_

_**Yes.**_

_And now? You're… a Guardian Force? The Guardian Force Odin?_

_**Yes. I believe that is what they called me. **_

…_Do all sorceresses' knights become Guardian Forces?_

_**No. Only those that are killed by their Sorceresses. **_

Every muscle in Squall's body tensed, and his chest spasmed as his heart missed a beat.

No. It couldn't be.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

AN: Wow. What a great set of reviews from the last chapter! I was so happy after receiving them that I transformed into super writer for a little and finished this chapter faster than I expected. Thanks everyone!

Until The End Playlist, Song 8: Jem - They


	9. Part 1: Chapter 8

Author's Note:

I want to put my author's note up top here this time. While this story is based on FFVIII, it is more loosely based than some fanfictions in the fandom. I am sticking close to the story canon but am expanding on a number of things never explained in the game. In order to do this I am blatantly ignoring certain facts the game gives. The following is a list of facts from the game that you should ignore for this story to make sense.

1\. Sorceresses being able to accept magic from multiple sorceresses:

In my story, as seen in the previous chapter and this one, sorceresses will only be able to be infected with the magic once.

2\. Edea getting power at the age of five:

Due to the above fact that I am ignoring, I am also ignoring that Edea got the magic when she was five and then again from Ultimecia. In this story she only receives it once from Ultimecia. I am altering the conversation between Squall and Edea when he travels back in time, where she says she does.

3\. Ultimecia being many generations in the future

It was mentioned briefly in the game that Ultimecia was sorceress in a very distant future. I am ignoring this, obviously.

4\. Edea taking on Ultimecia's power, collaborating with Cid about SeeD and getting it all running in the span of a year.

If you look at the timeline of the game, Edea and Cid get SeeD put together and running all under a year, just after she receives the power from Ultimecia. I am ignoring this fact. In this story Edea receives the power from Ultimecia in the year 4982 from Ultimecia. Squall is a still a baby, born in 4981. The three/four year old Squall that 17 year old Squall sees when he travels back in time is just a manifestation of the time traveling. Edea holds the magic for five years before the orphanage children are sent away.

If any more facts come up that I am ignoring I will add them to the list and update them with new chapters. I have great plans for this story but to fit everything together some things had to be pushed aside. Thanks for being understanding.

Anyways, this is a long and involved chapter. Prepare yourselves. Thanks for your reading and reviews!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Chapter 8**

"_I've seen fractured minds before, Squall "_

_Squall was sitting by the grave when Rinoa screamed his name. He jerked his head towards the house then stood, worried. That shout hadn't come from the bedroom where he'd left her. She couldn't be up and walking already, could she? _

_He opened his fist and let the dirt there rain down onto the grave before running back to the house and up the back porch. "Rin?" he called, opening the screen door and peering in. She didn't answer him and he let the door slam shut behind himself as he made for the stairs to the second floor. He was halfway up when she appeared at the top. He stopped, tried to look at the eyes and gauge what kind of day it would be. His heart fell when amber stared down at him. _

"_Rinoa," he said slowly, taking in the rest of her appearance. "You shouldn't be up. You're bleeding again." _

_The woman looked down at the line of blood running down her leg, at the red staining the shorts she was wearing, then back up at him. "Where did you hide her?" _

"_Who?" he edged up a few more stairs, trying to go slowly so as not to startle her. _

"_Don't play sly with me. Where is she?"_

_He stopped three steps down from her. "Why?"_

_Rinoa stared at him, her amber eyes seeming to look deep into his soul. "Because you're obviously not going to do it."_

_He looked away from the stare. "You should be in bed. You're not recovered." He paced up the last three steps and slipped a hand under her elbow, hoping to turn her back down the hallway and towards the bedroom. _

_Rinoa didn't move. "So that's how it is? You're choosing her?"_

_Squall sighed in weariness and turned back to face her. "Rin, Please." He brought a hand up and, hesitantly, laid a hand against her cheek, hoping it would invoke something, anything. When Rinoa raised her own hand and placed a palm against his own cheek, he smiled. _

_A second later he jerked away, hissing in pain. Rinoa snarled at him, talons extending from her fingers. "You worthless coward." He barely heard her words. Heat flared across his face, and his right eye teared. He touched a finger to his cheek in shock and then stared down at the blood on it. _

_He saw Rinoa flex her hands in his periphery and shot his gaze up to her. Wings coalesced, snapping open, creating a sudden wind that swept the picture frames off the walls to crash against the floor. The black tendrils in Rinoa's wings had stretched further towards the feather tips. Rinoa's mouth curved. Squall processed it all in a second and stepped back into the wall behind him._

_She leapt at him and he crouched instinctively, swinging a leg out and sweeping her feet out from under her. She shrieked as she went down and he dodged around her wing, shoving it away and gripping the banister to shove himself past and down the stairs. He held a hand to his bleeding face, panting at the too sudden shock, and ripped open the kitchen door. The basket was in the corner and he rushed to it, crouching and gathering the bundle inside it to his chest. _

_The wall behind him exploded inwards and he whipped back around._

"_Give her to me!" Rinoa snarled stepping over the rubble she'd reduced the wall to, ignoring the door. _

_Squall backed up against the kitchen counter. "Rinoa, stop! She's our daughter!"_

_Rinoa hissed at him. "Our daughter is dead. That demon in your arms _killed_ her."_

_Squall clutched the silent bundle in his arms tighter. "No. That's not-" he ducked as a spell crashed into the cabinets where his head had been a moment before. The flare engulfed the wood and heat seared against Squall's back. Only level one, and it left Rinoa panting. More blood was trickling down her legs. _

_Squall rushed her. Like he hoped, she hadn't expected it and his shoulder caught her in the center of the chest, shoving her back over the rubble to sprawl on the carpet. He caught at the crumbing wall with his free hand to stop himself from following her down, stumbling over his feet, and twisted for the doorway, out of reach of her thrashing form. He dashed through it and made for the front door, yanking it open and ducking out as another spell hit the wall next to the door, cracking the plaster. _

_He ran for the trees on the western side of the clearing. Only when he was within the trees did he hear the soft crying over his own heartbeat and pants. He glanced down at the child in his arms in panic. "Shhh. Don't cry." He glanced over his shoulder, trying to see the house through the trees then wrapped his free arm around the tiny weight and pushed deeper into the trees. "Shhhh."_

_When he found the tree with the hollow hole halfway up the trunk he tucked the whimpering bundle inside, trying to tug the blanket more securing around the child, and smearing blood on the fabric in the process. "Don't cry," he whispered. "You have to be quiet. It… It will be okay. We just have to wait it out." _

_He stared into the wet gray eyes for a second, then turned and dashed away. He couldn't afford for Rinoa to use the bond to sense him here in this area and lead her straight to the child. He was only a few yards away when an explosion sounded and the ground underneath him shook. He stumbled but kept running. That had been near the house. _

_He raced back towards the clearing, zig- zagging parallel to it for a little bit so that when he came back out it wouldn't lead straight towards where he'd been. He lurched to a stop when what was left of the house came into view. Hyne's blood. _

_The place had collapsed inwards. The back wall was standing and he could see the glint of the staircase poking up towards the sky but everything else was rubble. A Quake spell? What if Rinoa had been inside when it had collapsed? Despite himself, he felt a flash of worry spike through him. He tried to focus on the bond, but he'd never been very good at it, even at the best of times. He felt a slight invisible tug but the direction was lost on him. _

_He took a step forwards out of the trees, ready to call her name, when a weight dropped down on him from above. He landed on his hands and knees, trying to twist out and under but deceptively strong hands gripped his wrists and yanked them out from underneath him. He crashed down onto his face. _

"_Where is it?" her voice hissed in his ear._

_He rolled, his bigger frame overpowering hers, and wrenched himself away from her grip, hissing as her talons raked down his arm and sliced through skin. He shoved her away and scrambled to his feet. When a spell didn't come after him as he ran towards the collapsed house he glanced over his shoulder. Rinoa was dry heaving, a hand against her belly and her wings drooping. But even as he slowed, watching in concern, she wiped a hand across her mouth and look up towards him. _

_The amber in her eyes was bright gold as they locked on him, and he knew suddenly that something had shifted terribly. _

"_Enough of this." She snarled and raised a hand. The roar of wind cut his legs out from underneath him and he landed hard, the breath knocked out of his lungs. Before he could even gasp in air, she'd shifted spells and gravity was suddenly dragging him along the ground towards her. _

_He caught hold of a loose branch on the ground, thick and heavy, and threw it at her. It glanced off of her wing and she shrieked, pulling the appendage in towards her body. Then she was on him again, straddling his hips and digging her talons in his chest. _

_He screamed, arching into the pain. _

"_Die," she hissed in his face, pushing her claws deeper._

_He writhed, scrambling at her hands, trying to pry them off. "Rin! He gasped. "_Rin_!"_

_She didn't respond, only curled the talons and ripped through him more. _

_Instinct kicked in. Emotion shut down. _

_He brought a leg up, wrapped it around Rinoa's hips and used the leverage to twist them at the same time that he drove his fist into the side of her head. She crashed down onto her side with a cry of pain and her claws slipped from his chest. Gasping at the sensation, he shoved himself away, back to his feet and darted for the car on the other side of the clearing, near the water. He ignored the scream behind him and tore the door open, reaching inside for the gun under the seat. He'd just grasped it when there was a pain in his other arm and he was thrown backwards to sprawl on his back. _

_Rinoa engulfed the car in a fireball and landed with her feet on either side of Squall. Squall stared up at her, wings snapped wide and teeth bared, madness radiating off her. _

_He pulled the trigger. _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

When Squall opened his eyes, everything was dark. He sat up and looked down at himself. He could see his legs and boots and his hands when he held them out in front of himself, but everything else was… nothingness. He couldn't hear anything expect his own breathing. There was no scent in the air. He couldn't even feel anything underneath him. Beginning to panic, he placed a hand down next to his legs and felt solidness, but the sensation was exclusive to his hand alone.

What was this? A fever dream?

"You're inside your mind."

Squall jerked around, bringing a knee underneath him in preparation for quick movement. A man stood a few feet away, arms crossed and head cocked. "Who are you?" Squall demanded, wiping a hand across his teary eyes and pushing himself to his own feet so he could take a step back. He was disoriented and upset, a perfect combination for an ambush. Squall assessed the man before him quickly, trying to determine if that was what this was.

He was wearing armor of a sort, thin and tight to his body, but it didn't hide the fact that the man was carry around a lot of muscle. His black hair was a little longer than Squall's; dark eyes looked back at him curiously from underneath the strands. There was no weapon visible, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

"Harren," the man said simply and the voice clicked, this second time Squall heard it. It was the same as the one he'd been hearing in his head for the last day and a half.

Squall took the man in from head to foot a second time, startled. He felt like he'd had a grasp on who Harren was, but now, staring at this person in front of him, he realized he'd never actually seen the man before. In Harren's memories he'd never once looked into anything reflective. And then he'd only ever been a voice inside Squall's mind.

But if this was Harren's human body, how was he suddenly seeing it? Did Guardian forces even _have_ human bodies? Then, what Harren had said earlier processed.

"Inside my….?"

Harren shrugged and looked around them, eyes contemplative. "If I can see you and you can see me, then this must be your mind. Perhaps your subconscious?"

Squall quickly went through everything his knew about the subconscious mind from his years as a cadet in the classroom. It helped regulate the body. It stored memories. One instructor's words popped back at him: _Your subconscious mind stores everything that has happened to you. It is like a huge memory bank. _

A memory bank. Memories.

Was this connected to him reliving those memories? He'd been in one. He'd been reliving-

He shied away from the thought so forcibly that he found himself taking a physical step back.

Squall pushed his hands against his face roughly, putting pressure on his eyes, then took them away and blinked around at the unchanging nothingness. What the fuck was happening to him?

The hallucinations were one thing; this was another. He was still aware of his surroundings during the hallucinations. He could deal with them. Even the memories only ever lasted seconds. But this… Was he asleep? Awake but unfunctional? Was it night still or day?

He couldn't be here; wherever here really was. He couldn't afford to be inattentive in a world out to get him.

"How do I get out?" he demanded, perhaps a bit harshly. He didn't care.

Harren looked at him for a moment and then looked around at the empty nothingness. "I don't know how you got here in the first place." He admitted.

Squall closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply. Alright, if this was his mind, then he had control over it. He just had to find his way out. He willed himself back in his apartment, trying to press his desperation into it.

When he opened his eyes, he sighed out in relief. He was in the bedroom, where he last remembered being. Chayla was still sleeping in her bed. Then he turned his head and Harren was there, standing next to the bathroom door. The image shattered with his sudden alarm and he was once again standing in the black and blank space, with Harren across from him.

Harren looked down at himself, held his hands out in front of him. "I have not been like this, looked like a man, in a very long time. I believe it is my mind's image of myself." He glanced up at Squall. "As that must be your mind's image of yourself."

Distracted slightly at the odd tone in Harren's voice, Squall looked down at himself. He was wearing what he'd put on the day before. Nothing had changed. He sighed out a frustrated breath and looked up, but the motion caused a strand of hair to fall from behind his ear into his line of sight and he frowned. Something wasn't right with it. He reached up to finger it and pull it further into sight.

It was _brown_.

Instantly the strand between his fingers turned black. He jolted and flinched his fingers away. Harren cocked his head at him. "It's already turning back to brown. I assume the black is recent then. Not something you normally associate yourself with. A disguise?"

Squall tried to ignore the man and thought _home_. His Timber condo appeared around them. There was the kitchenette in the back, the door to the bedroom, Chayla's prince and princess dolls in the corner, the potted fern plant he'd had to leave behind.

No, _Deling!_

The Deling apartment replaced the Timber condo, shapes melting into new shapes.

Near the couch, Harren looked around. "You've moved recently?"

A small sound escaped his throat and he raked a hand down his face. Then he raked his other hand in the same motion, digging his fingers into his skin. Wake up. _Wake up!_

He gasped as something gripped his wrist and yanked his hand away. Harren's face loomed in front of him. "What is distressing you so?"

Squall stared at Harren's fingers over his wrist. The grip was tight, branding his skin. He could feel them; he could feel Harren's palm on the back of his hand. "I can't be here. I have to go back. Chayla…"

"You're daughter? She is asleep."

Squall snapped his eyes up to Harren. "How do you know that?"

"She was asleep while we were speaking, just a few minutes ago."

"You could… see that?"

"Yes. When I am in the forefront of your mind, I can pick up what you see and hear."

Squall let out a careful breath as his body screamed sudden danger at him. "And what I think?" He remembered again the way the guardian force had picked up on things so easily that first night.

Harren smiled briefly, like he had caught on to Squall's thought process. "Only direct thoughts, those directed specifically to me or those singularly focused."

"But you can access my memories."

"Only if I search."

Squall found his eyes staring at Harren's fingers around his wrist again as the enormity of it all hit him. A voice was one thing. It was just one more oddity in his life. But to see the person behind the voice? To see the solid presence of the entity that was supposed to be in his mind and see how _human _it was, how _cognizant_ it was… This was a second mind, in his body.

A body that he wasn't sure he was currently in control of.

"What do you mean, the forefront of my mind?" he asked softly, barely above a whisper. What was a dangerous question and what wasn't? By asking them himself, was he giving unintended information to the man? But he had to know how this worked. He had to know where the limits were.

Harren shrugged, but kept his gaze locked on Squall's face. "I can attach myself to your consciousness. That is what I call the forefront of your mind, where you perceive the world. When I recede away from that, I can only pick up on strong emotions or your awareness of myself."

"And if I'm not…" but he couldn't bring himself to ask it.

Harren released Squall's wrist and leaned towards him slightly. "I can guess what you are trying to ask. You need not fear. I do not know the limits to this situation, but I can tell you now that with you here, I cannot leave this place. I was drawn to you, and now I am not sure how to leave either. You're consciousness clearly dominants here."

Squall let a slow breath escape. Truth or lie? Looking into Harren's eyes, he felt it was truth. He could see that Harren believed it to be true at least. His body relaxed slightly. He accepted it and moved on to the more important thing at the moment, latching on to a comment Harren had stated in the midst of it all. "You said we were speaking a few minutes ago?" If that was true, then it was still night and Chayla would still sleep for hours.

Harren nodded and took a step back as if he felt Squall was no longer in danger of scratching his own face off. "I don't know what happened. You're thoughts went quiet for a moment or two and then I was drawn here."

So Harren hadn't been privy to the memory. But the comment served to bring his mind back to the particular memory that had ambushed him after Harren's revelation from the dark place he had shoved it. The one that sliced him open.

The replica of the couch in his apartment was behind him. He sat down on it. Harren – for he was clearly not Odin here – crossed his arms again. The man was watching him closely still; very closely. Squall put his elbow on the couch's arm as his hand covered his face. "What you said. About Sorceresses killing their knights…" He couldn't go on. There was silence for a long moment that Squall was highly aware of and then the cushion next to him dipped and a hand touched his shoulder. He flinched.

"She wasn't trying to kill you. She was trying to reincarnate you."

"Is there a difference?" Squall asked thickly. He'd seen her eyes and the intention in them. "She was trying to rip my heart out."

"_Die," she hissed in his face, pushing her claws deeper._

He shuddered and shrugged his shoulder out from under Harren's hand. He could feel himself unraveling underneath the memory; the old pain and betrayal and guilt surging through him. He tried to get a grip on himself. "I knew it was getting bad." He told his knees, the words tumbling out without his consent. "I knew there was a possibility it could happen. I thought…" He swallowed. "I thought there might be an accident. But…"

"But to have them look you in the face and kill you without remorse… That is a betrayal of the deepest kind." Harren finished.

Squall turned and gazed at Harren. The man looked back at him solemnly, his eyes reflecting Squall's pain. Squall jerked his eyes away from it and curled slightly forward at the pain in his chest. He'd thought knowing the 'why' would make it better, had come up with theory after theory to assuage his pain, but now that he _had_ a clear 'why', he wondered why he had ever thought the pain of it could be lessened.

"You were Adel's knight." He said, reaching for a desperate attempt at distraction. He glanced sideways in time to see Harren nod. Squall searched his eyes. "And… Adel was a man?"

Harren seemed to consider Squall's clear change of topic for a long horrifying moment, as if he might refuse the shift in conversation, but a moment later he dipped his head and acquiesced. "Yes."

Squall let the verbal confirmation process for a moment; let it wash over the other unwanted thoughts. Adel as a man? It explained the size and the build. "I was under the assumption that only females could be hosts to the magic."

"Larissa and Adel certainly wanted everyone to believe that."

The question of another 'why' immediately pushed to the tip of his tongue, but he could see in Harren's eyes that the man didn't have the answer. He let it go unasked, and tried to formulate his next. "Adel's eyes were red. In your memories. Not amber."

"Their effect was the same as Larissa's amber eyes. It's possible that females produce an amber color and males produce a red color when the magic takes hold of them."

Squall excepted the thoery and moved on. "And you and Adel… you were… lovers?"

Harren's brow furrowed. "Of course not!"

Squall rocked back at the tone, startled. "I'm sorry. It's just…the bond…"

Harren's expression smoothed out as quickly as it had shifted. "No, it is I who apologize. I am only just beginning to see how much you don't know." Squall bristled and glanced away but the truth of the words bit deep. Edea had shared what she'd known with him and Rinoa but they'd all understood how limited the knowledge was. "A bond can be formed when there is sufficient devotion and an exchange of bodily fluids. Blood works just as well as… sexual fluids." Harren smiled slightly, then sobered. "Was there no one to explain?" he asked curiously. "Did Larissa's knowledge not pass down through her successors?"

Squall whipped his head back around to Harren. 'Larissa?" he repeated.

Harren's eyebrow arched. "Adel was sealed away for seventeen years, but I saw in your memories of your fight with her that there was a sorceress of your time, the dark haired woman. Did she not receive her powers from Larissa?"

Larissa. He'd seen Harren's memories of Adel's twin but he'd disregarded her, too focused on the mysteries of the other twin. He shook his head at himself. That had been stupid, even with all that had happened. He pulled it all forth, now, and the facts piled in front of him, one after the other. Adel was male. The woman the world had thought was Adel was Adel's twin sister, Larissa. Both Adel and Larissa had had magic. Adel had been sealed. Larissa…

Squall stared at Harren. "There's another sorceress?" he whispered suddenly. "There's another sorceress out there somewhere?"

Harren's hand gripped his arm. "Calm your mind. Squall, you're destroying the surroundings."

His name on the man's lips pulled Squall's mind back forcibly from the sudden thought. Where the hell had he heard that name? Harren's grip on his arm tightened further and he reclutantly left it for the moment to look around. Yellow light had been overtaking half of the insubstantial room he'd created around them, eroding walls and furniture away, but it seemed frozen in place now. He tried to bring his emotions under control, and was only partially successful. The room reformed around them but the yellow light persisted in some of the corners.

Squall tugged his arm out of Harren's grip. "Where did you hear that name?" he demanded.

Harren glanced away from his inspection of the room, and raised a questioning brow. "The man on the phone in Fisherman's Horizon. Your father."

Now that Harren brought it up, Squall's mind provided the memory of it happening. He hadn't even realized Laguna's slip at the time. He cursed himself and his carelessness that night. Laguna always claimed that the phone was secure, and he wouldn't have made the slip if he hadn't thought it was secure, but what did Laguna consider secure? He's personal guard wasn't infallible, but Laguna might think they were.

He stopped himself and the thoughts. There was nothing he could do about it now. It was done. Much as he hated it, he'd just have to trust Laguna. Like he'd have to trust Denna.

He shook his head, hating how the control he'd cultivated for four years was beginning to crumble. But he had to deal with the here and now. This was an opportunity. Harren had answers to questions that could help him. He needed all the information he could get. He'd have to consider the other information later.

"There's another sorceress?" he repeated, stuck on the idea. First, he needed this confirmation; needed Harren to tell him that it was true.

"Both Adel and Larissa would have needed successors," Harren replied, and Squall slumped in relief. But Harren was eyeing the yellow tint to the room. "This makes you… happy?" he asked slowly, turning to glance at Squall inquisitively.

Squall felt slight guilt at the question, but not very much. It _did_ make him glad. But he didn't know how to put his emotions or there reasons into words that made sense so he just looked back at Harren and shrugged.

"This has to do with your daughter."

He felt his face harden in reaction. There went more of his hard earned control.

Harren just watched him though, seemingly not bothered. He didn't speak however and Squall realized after a moment that the man was waiting. He looked away and rubbed a hand over his face, sighing in frustration. It was easy to read the silence. Harren wanted him to acknowledge the truth. The man probably already knew, but he wanted Squall to say it.

Squall had spent four years _not_ saying it.

The more people that knew it, the more dangerous it became. Harren wasn't a failsafe. If he could speak with Squall, then he could speak to other people's minds? Right? Thinking about it though, he realized that he'd never spoken to a guardian force before and he'd never heard of any other SeeD that could speak with the forces they were using either. Was this communication possible because Odin/Harren wasn't contained in the implanted SeeD seal? And how exactly was that working?

"Have you ever spoken with anyone else?" he asked. "As a guardian force?"

"Only Adel." Harren replied easily.

"Could you?"

Harren shrugged. "If their mind was able to contain me without the implant for more than a few moments, I suppose." He paused, and then added. "I would have said it was impossible until your mind did. So I expect you must ask yourself what makes you different from other people to be able to answer the question."

Squall scowled at the answer. It didn't help him.

So it came down to whether he trusted the man or not. He'd been nothing but accommodating so far. And it was clear that he knew things that Squall didn't. Things about sorceresses; things that may help him with Chayla. Could he afford to _not_ trust the man?

He sucked in a breath and then let it out slowly. Then he forced it out, one slow word after the other. "Chayla is a sorceress."

Harren didn't blink but he nodded encouragingly, urging Squall to continue. This next statement came easier, once the first one was out. "Everyone thinks she's destined to become Ultimecia."

Harren cocked his head. "Ultimecia was the sorceress you were fighting in the last war, correct? The war you recruited me for before Gilgamesh dispersed my energy?"

Squall nodded, and looked down at his hands. "She was from the future, possessing sorceresses of the present."

'And now we are in that future, in her time."

Squall nodded slightly. "Probably."

Harren took it all in without a blink. He stared at Squall. "And you're child is Ultimecia?"

"No," Squall hissed and the yellow tint in the corners them vanished abruptly, leaving the room dim. Harren raised an eyebrow and sat back. "She's not," Squall spat, glaring at the man.

"No," Harren agreed, raising a hand slightly in surrender. "But she could _become_ Ultimecia?"

"No," Squall countered, pulling his voice under control. He told himself that Harren was just trying to understand. He wasn't making accusations. "Everyone else may have preordained her future, but it's only a possibility. And not one that I'll allow to happen." He added the last part defiantly.

"Then why were you so relieved that there might be a second sorceress?"

The question stabbed at him and he felt the earlier pain in his chest again. There was always the possibility… He reached a hand up and gripped his shirt over the spot, "The future isn't set in stone," he said, hating how weak his voice suddenly sounded.

Harren didn't comment. His fingers drummed against his thigh for a moment as he puzzled it out. "So you've been hiding her. That's why you have a disguise."

Squall frowned, dropped his hand. "Ultimecia wreaked havoc in the world of her time. _Any_ sorceress alive now will be suspected of becoming her." He glanced at Harren, knowing he didn't need to justify himself, but feeling the need to do it anyways. "They would have sealed her away, locked her up without giving her a chance to live her life. She's only a _child_."

"And she's _your_ child." Harren said softly, seeming to understand.

His doubts about Harren disappeared with those gentle words. Having someone, anyone, understand some of his choices lifted a weight off his chest. He hadn't even realized how heavy the weight had gotten over the years until it was gone. He shifted his shoulders, marveling at the ease there.

He smiled hesitantly at Harren. "So you see, if there is another sorceress out there, then it's entirely possible that _they_ might become Ultimecia." And if that was true then concrete plans could be made for Chayla and him.

"But as you said," Harren commented. "Any sorceress alive now will be suspected."

True… "I just have to keep Chayla hidden until this other one brings attention down on herself. We'll be safe after that."

"There's something I don't understand." Harren said, and he shifted a leg up underneath him on the couch. "You're convinced that Larissa's successor is out in the world, someone you had no knowledge of before, clearly. But there was a sorceress present, yours, when you killed Adel. Who did she receive her powers from if not from Larissa?"

"She received them from Edea." He stopped there and tried to swallow the guilt down at the sound of that name on his lips.

"And who gave the magic to Edea?" Harren prodded when he was silent for too long.

Squall shook the feelings away. "Ultimecia." When Harren stared back uncomprehendingly, Squall remembered again how little the man knew of the war. "She traveled back in time to transfer her magic."

Harren opened his mouth then shook his head, obviously shaking off the sudden questions to keep them focused on his first question. "And no one knows who transfers the magic to her. Not yet." He bent his head and scratched his nose in thought. "But she inherited them now, in this present time. Which means she's not a _direct_ successor of either Adel or Larissa. Not unless Larissa is still alive."

"She didn't look _that_ young in your memories,"

"If she's alive she'd be around sixty years old," Harren confirmed.

Squall frowned. "Is it possible to live that long with the magic? Doesn't it …"

Harren waited. Squall scowled. Harren was going to make him say this too? What was the man's game? He let the silence last longer, wondering if Harren would give in. He didn't. Anger and frustration flashed through Squall, but he bore down on it. He shied away from facing the memories, but he needed this information. If he had any hope of preventing what had happened with Rinoa…

For Chayla. He'd tear the scab off over and over again if it saved Chayla. He made himself speak. "Rinoa was always… unpredictable, when her eyes were amber. She used any excuse to use the magic when they were discolored. Like the magic was itching just under her skin during those times. And the longer she had the magic… the more the amber color come out and the worse she got. The more angry she got. The more…"

'Insane?" Harren filled in. Squall shifted uneasily and looked away. "Adel got worse the longer I knew him." Harren added.

"And Larissa?"

Harren shook his head. "I didn't know her that long. And once I had been reincarnated as a guardian force, I only saw her once or twice in my corporal form."

"Edea…" he started, ripping more of the scab off. "She had the magic for seventeen years. She seemed okay-"

_Squall covered his ears with his hands as Quistis screamed. When he looked up, annoyed, everyone was staring at Matron, wide-eyed. His own eyes grew big as he saw the wings protruding from her back. They were stretched all the way out, one tip brushing the wall, and the other extending towards the window, almost touching. They were longer than both him and Seifer together. _

"_Ma?" Zell whispered_

_Quistis picked it up, stepping in front of Zell and Selphie and trembling like a leaf. "Matron?"_

_Matron turned her head and snarled at them and the cups on the table froze and shattered. _

_A chunk of ceramic to his shoulder had him on his back before he realized what was happening. Both Zell and Selphy were screaming now. Running feet sprinted around the table and past him to the doorway. Quisty screamed his name as she ran Zell and Selphy out of the room, Irvy tripping over her feet. He sat up, eyes going straight to Matron. She had turned towards the table; something was wrong with her eyes, they were the wrong color. _

_That was all he had time to see before Seifer grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the kitchen. _

Squall's mouth clicked closed, dizzied by the smoothness of the memory.

"That was a memory?" Harren asked and Squall glanced at him. "The woman and the kids?"

"You saw it?"

Harren waved his hand vaguely. "The scene projected itself here. That was what you meant, when you said you see memories?" Squall touched his shoulder, the shoulder the ceramic had hit, and nodded. "I saw this one," Harren continued. "It must be because you're here, in your mind. If you're accessing memories from _inside_ your head…" Squall sighed and leaned forward to massage his forehead. "We can discuss it later. The woman. She was Edea?"

Squall gave a small nod of his head. "There were a few instances like that, where she lost control. But mostly, she kept the magic contained while we were at the orphanage. Five years. I don't know how she was during the time between the closing of the orphanage and when she was possessed by Ultimecia." But she had handled it well enough for those five years, with only a few slips. She could have handled it well enough for the rest of those seventeen years, right? Garden would have heard about it otherwise, wouldn't they have? "How long did Adel and Larissa have the magic? Do you know when they received it? From who?"

Harren shook his head, and grimaced. "They never said. A few years at least before Adel found me, if not more."

And yet "Rinoa lost control in less than a year."

Harren sighed and shrugged his shoulders in an apologetic gesture. "The magic seems to affect each sorceress or sorcerer differently. Larissa always had more control over her magic than Adel did his."

What made Rinoa different then? She'd never really had a temper before she inherited the power. Why had it affected her so much worse than it had Edea or Larissa? Most importantly, here in his current world, was if it was genetic?

Chayla was still a sorceress, prone to the same infection of madness. There'd been no sign for the last four years, but…

"There's no conclusive proof that Larissa became... unpredictable, though. Right? And if Ultimecia hadn't taken possession of Edea there's nothing to say that she would have taken over the Deling government. It's not guaranteed that every sorceress will…" he couldn't bring himself to complete the sentence.

Harren frowned "I don't know." Then he sighed heavily as if he regretted not knowing.

"What about the other guardian forces? You said you've talked to some. They had sorceresses right?"

"We never spoke of the matter."

Squall sighed and dropped his head into his hands. He needed more information. If he could get access to other guardian forces and see if he could speak to them as well, they might know more. If all guardian forces were once sorceress knights, then that meant there had to have been at least that many sorceress – or sorcerers – throughout history.

Most of them were locked in Esthar, but there'd been a few that had never been sealed, like Harren. He'd told Laguna that they'd all been sealed with the exclusion of Harren, but that wasn't true was it? Gilgamesh was out there somewhere. And what if the creatures Phoenix and Moomba were actually guardian forces? They hadn't thought so during the war because of the way they had been found, but they had incorporeal and corporal bodies like the guardian forces did. There had been a few others like that, hadn't there?

"Your daughter," Harren said, interrupting his thoughts.

Squall looked up. "What?"

After a second, as if he was thinking something through, Harren spoke. "I'm going back to my original question; who are the successors of Adel and Larissa. There seems to be one clear line of descendants at least. Someone of this time gives the magic to Ultimecia who gives the magic to the woman Edea who gives it to the woman Rinoa. Does your daughter complete the descent? Did Rinoa give the magic to her?"

Squall shook his head, and his eyes skittered to the side. He crossed his arms defensively. "She was born with the magic."

Harren sat back, looking startled. "_Born_ with it?" he repeated incredulously. "Are you sure she didn't acquire it just after the birth?"

"No."

"You're sure?" Harren repeated.

Squall looked over at him. "She was born with wings."

Harren stared at him for a long time before he spoke two unwanted words. "Show me." When Squall only stared at him he leaned forward. "Try to control it. Find the memory and show me."

Squall didn't want to. He didn't want to relive the memory. But he felt his mind going back to it, with the topic at hand. And wherever here was, it seemed easier to-

"_Push!" he ordered, trying to hold the head in one slippery hand. _

_Rinoa screamed and fisted her hands into the bloodied sheets, body shaking with the strain. She strained and he held his breath until the contraction dulled and left them both breathless. _

"_It's stuck," Rinoa wailed, flailing on the bed, and Squall struggled to keep a hold on the infant. "Get it out!" The baby, half inside her and half out, wailed in anguished confusion. Rinoa got an elbow under her and leaned up, pain crazed eyes meeting his over her belly, shifting from brown to amber and back again. "Pull it out," she pleaded as another contraction hit. _

_He'd tried already, but the tiny shoulders were stretching Rinoa to full capacity. He clasped the tiny shoulder and turned it a little, hoping it would shift something, but Rinoa just cried out louder. _

"_Get it out!" Amber eyes. _

_Whatever was stuck, it was coming from below the shoulders. He swallowed through his parched throat, and put pressure on the shoulder when the next contraction tapered off, pushing the baby's torso back into the birth canal. Then, while there was some space, he shoved his left hand in as well, down against the baby's back. Immediately he encountered something._

"_Why?" Rinoa said suddenly. _

_Squall glanced up, distracted as he tried to determine what the obstruction was by feel "What?"_

"_Why did we let this happen?" Brown eyes. _

_Then the next contraction seized Rinoa and she squeezed her eyes closed. They opened amber. "Get it out!"_

_His fingers caught on the obstructions and the baby wailed louder. Whatever they were, there were two, one against his thumb and the other against his palm. The one against his palm was twisted, higher than the other. Without hesitation, he shifted his hand that way and pushed the thing over to the left and down. Rinoa screamed, arched, and then bore down. _

_With a tearing sound, the baby slid out amid a rush of blood and fluid._

_Ignoring the fluids soaking his pants, Squall cradled the tiny body against his chest and looked down at the exposed back, peeling his hand away halfway to see what his fingers had caught on. _

_Two tiny feathered wings. _

Squall doubled over as the memory blinked out. Not from physical pain. The memories weren't causing a grinding headache here like they'd done before. No, it was the grief that doubled him over. That had been his last glimpse of those chocolate brown eyes, the last time he'd heard her soft voice devoid of anger. Two days later, she had…

Harren stayed quiet, leaving him to his devastation.

He'd grieved. Hyne, he'd grieved for months, but it had been tinged with hurt and betrayal and guilt. Chayla hadn't allowed him to grieve for long as it was, taking up his every waking moment with her needs of safety and health. And after four years, he'd started to forget the little moments; the details overshadowed by the larger events. It became a story that he looked back on from the outside, a detached observer.

But now, having lived events of those days again, with those brown eyes searing into his short term memory and the younger emotions rushing through his older body, he couldn't keep from cracking. Heartache poured through the cracks, and rendered him immobile. Thought abandoned him, senses abandoned him. There was only deep emotional pain.

Some indeterminable time later thought poured back in.

Sometime after that he unfolded and looked up to see that the black nothingness was back. The only color was Harren, standing a little ways away with his arms crossed and his chin close to his chest. Squall reformed the apartment around them again then sat staring at the surroundings, not seeing them.

"How did Rinoa know? That I would reincarnate?" he didn't realize he'd said it aloud until Harren's face turned up towards him. Squall cleared his throat and waved his question away. Edea. Edea must have known more than she'd told him.

Harren walked over and sat down across from him, on the loveseat this time. "I did not realize that memory would cause you so much pain. I apologize for asking that of you."

Squall shrugged and looked away, not wanting to talk about it. "You saw," he muttered instead. "That she was born with the magic."

"If a sorceress could be born, why kidnap girls to find a successor?" Harren argued gently. "Larissa could have birthed a successor instead. And if your sorceress tried to reincarnate you after the birth, then she still had her magic." He shifted, watched Squall, then continued. "Larissa once compared the magic to a parasite. It infects hosts and when the host can no longer support it, it finds another host. But, like the way the magic can't infect someone already infected, it can't split itself in two either. Rinoa couldn't have given magic to a daughter and kept some herself. I don't think it's physically _possible_ for a sorceress to be born."

"I think she was infected as a fetus."

Harren sat back.

Squall swallowed. "I think Rinoa was pregnant when I killed Adel."

Early in the pregnancy they had worried that the magic would kill the baby. When it was clear it wasn't and that life was still growing inside Rinoa, they then worried that the baby would be corrupted by the magic, would take some of the magic into itself. But Dr. Odine had postulated that it wasn't possible, for the same reasons that Harren had just argued. Squall had laid to rest his worries about the magic harming his child and instead worried at how it seemed to be changing Rinoa.

Then Chayla had been born with those wings.

The fact that Rinoa had retained her magic proved that she hadn't transferred the magic unwillingly due to her weakened state, like he'd first assumed until he looked up into amber eyes. He'd gone back over all their previous assumptions, all the facts he knew about the magic, trying to figure out what had happened.

"We jumped through time to fight Ultimecia right after defeating Adel. We were in the middle of a war. No one thought to think about where Adel's magic went at the time."

Harren cupped his chin in his hand. "A fetus," he said softly, then nodded slowly. "I can't see why that wouldn't work. The magic infects living hosts. Technically, a fetus is a living being."

Squall's thoughts were already roaming, piecing the new information he now knew to the old. "But if Adel was a man, that means the magic _isn't_ restricted to females, like we thought. Why didn't the magic transfer to one of us? Why a fetus? Why Chayla?!" The last came out sharper than he intended and he drew in a deep breath to calm himself.

Harren was watching him when he looked back up. He looked like he wanted to speak but he wasn't. Squall sighed wearily. "Just say it."

Harren shifted. "A Sorceress directs the transfer, unless she or he is too consumed by pain and instinct causes them to latch onto the nearest person. From the memories of yours that I found that first day, Adel was not that far gone." He paused, looked down at his knees in thought, and then continued. "You said Ultimecia was possessing sorceresses in the past. Did she possesses Adel?"

'Yes," Squall said, even more warily, already seeing where this was going.

"Then it's entirely possible that Ultimecia directed the transfer… to ensure her existence. Or," Harren added, raising his hand to forestall any anger on Squall's part. "It could be that Chayla is the one who transfers her powers to the woman who becomes Ultimecia. Or perhaps the girl is pivotal in Ultimeica's life somehow. For whatever reason, Ultimecia wanted your daughter to have the magic."

Squall really didn't like the sound of that.

Harren leaned forward, looking into Squall's eyes. "Whatever happened, I doubt the true origins of Ultimecia will become clear until recognizable events begin to occur." That could take years. After all they knew next to nothing about Ultimecia except that she had a grudge against SeeD and had wanted to become a living god through Time Compression. "More importantly," Harren said "If what you say is true, then your child is Adel's successor. Perhaps she begets the rise of Ultimecia. Or perhaps Larissa's successor begets her or is her. That still leaves your sorceress, Rinoa. What happened to her?"

Squall turned away, closed his eyes. The scab was completely gone. He was digging his fingers deep into the wound now. "I killed her." There was silence for a long moment. "When she was trying to… reincarnate me," he added.

"Not an easy feat," Harren commented slowly.

"The birth weakened her," he whispered, staring at the back of his eyelids.

"Who did she transfer her magic to?"

Squall opened his eyes and stared at Harren. "What?"

"Who did Rinoa give her magic to?"

Startled, Squall cast his mind back. But his memories only held flashes of images. "I… I don't know. I don't remember the fight that well." He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. There had been that blue dragon that had dragged him away from the clearing. When he'd gotten back, Rinoa had been dead. Had someone stumbled onto the scene?

Why had he never thought to wonder about it? Rinoa's magic had to have gone somewhere. He paused. "There's a _third_ sorceress somewhere?"

Harren sat back and sighed. He closed his eyes in thought then opened them again and gazed at Squall. "Your daughter, Larissa's successor, and… Rinoa's successor." Three.

Squall tried to process that. Three sorceresses. And SeeD thought they could seal the power away forever. _He'd_ thought they could seal it away forever, once. What a joke. "How did both Adel and Larissa have the magic?" he asked. The thought had been swirling in the back of his mind for a while. "If the magic can't be split in two how could there be two sorceresses, or a sorceress and a sorcerer or whatever?"

Harren looked at him for a long time before finally speaking. "What was the bundle near the bed during the birth?"

Squall's hand spasmed on his leg and that emotional pain coursed through him again. He left the couch abruptly and moved to stand by the imaginary kitchen table, turning his back on Harren. The man continued anyways. "I saw the memory projected here, the whole room. There was something wrapped in a blanket, near the bed."

"Leave it alone," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around himself.

"I'm trying to find a correlation so I can answer your question." Harren said. "And I think you need-"

'I don't need anything," Squall snapped, hunching.

Harren quieted and for a moment Squall thought he really would drop it, but then - "Chayla had a twin, didn't she?"

Squall choked and leaned over his arms as the image of his first daughter, malformed and dead, pushing to the front of his mind. He reached out and braced a hand on the table, then cried out and jerked away as the image projected itself on top of the table.

The brain developed half inside the skull and half out. The collapsed torso, with the heart and lungs formed out of the skin instead of under it. She would never have survived outside the womb clearly. But then, she'd never gotten the chance. The heart, unprotected, had been crushed, caved in the middle from a focused strike. The fact that she had been about Chayla's size and hadn't been reabsorbed into Rinoa's body proved that it had happened not long before the birth.

He backed away from the table and the image disappeared, but it was forever seared in his mind. Always would be. Those were details he had never forgotten, only pushed away.

He whirled and collided with Harren's chest, and before he could think of the consequences, his fist clocked him in the jaw. The man had been pushing him this whole time. First with the admissions, then with the memory, and now this. Squall was done. Harren's face jerked sideways and he grunted but he caught Squall's next punch and shoved it aside.

The fight was short. Thirty seconds and Squall was flat on his back with the older man pinning him down.

"Let it out," Harren told him roughly. "Just not on me." He eased up and Squall curled on his side, burying his face in his hands as sobs burst from his throat.

Distantly he felt himself fall apart a second time, subdued and carried away from control. It was too much. Too many things had been piling up in the last week, on top of the already precarious pile of past pain. This was the straw that was too heavy. It collapsed the pile with its weight.

He wondered if this is what it would have felt like, to have his heart ripped out that day.

He wondered if it would ever stop, now that it had finally caught up to him.

Harren's hand touched his shoulder. He tensed in reaction, throat catching. But Harren just spoke, softly and slowly. "I've seen fractured minds before, Squall. I've been trying to assess the situation of the world, yes, but I've also been pushing you. If you don't let grief run its course, you will only fracture your mind further. The look in your eye, the way you reacted or responded to certain things. They were all familiar to me. You haven't grieved properly for your lost daughter or your Sorceress, have you?"

Squall curled an arm over his head and brought his knees up to his chest, trying to making himself smaller. Instinct was telling him that smaller targets were safer, but the pain didn't lessen.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed then disappeared.

He hadn't known Rinoa was carrying twins. He'd never thought of a second name. He'd had to bury his daughter without a name.

Sometimes he looked at Chayla and wondered if she knew. Knew what she had done to her sister in the womb.

Sometimes he wondered if Rinoa would have stayed sane if he hadn't gotten her pregnant. What would her life have been like if she had never joined forces with SeeD; if he had never gone on that mission to Timber and met her and set into motion a world of tragedy?

What would his life have been like?

He wondered about a lot of things.

Eventually his eyes dried and his throat closed; his stomach cramped, weary from the hard contracting it had been forced to do; a migraine poked at the edges of his heavy congested head.

Eventually the pain dulled from a burn to an ache.

Eventually he realized he was staring at Harren's knees. The man had sat down cross legged in front of him at some point, sitting in the blackness. He was staring off to one side, obviously in thought since there was nothing to look at. Squall took his arm away his head and curled it against his chest, and watched Harren think.

After a few long minutes Harren looked down and met his eyes, startling back slightly when he realized Squall was watching him. "Squall," he greeted as if Squall had been gone for a long time.

Perhaps he had been.

He heaved himself up slowly on shaky arms until he was sitting upright and rubbed his hands over his face. He reformed the apartment around them so that he and Harren were sitting on the floor to the side of the coffee table. Then he left the man to his thoughts and got to his feet so he could move to stand by the imaginary window. There was nothing outside the window to look at of course, but it put distance between himself and Harren.

He needed that distance at the moment.

"What was the correlation you were trying to make?" he asked the window dully.

He heard Harren shift behind him. "We should continue this conversation another time. It's too soon-"

"No," Squall interrupted roughly. "You started this. We're going to finish it." He'd allowed Harren to push him because he needed answers. Now he was going to get his damn answers.

Besides, he was still stuck here. He still didn't know how to get back to his body.

Harren sighed but brought the conversation back with a question. "Was… there any indication that the other twin had held the magic?"

"No."

"I've been thinking about your idea of a fetus being infected. If the magic infects a fetus after its split away from its twin, you'd get one twin with the magic and the other without. But if the egg was infected before it split, very close to the conception, then both twins could come away with the magic."

"Life beginning at conception itself?" That would create serious controversy with the scientists of Esthar.

"I don't know. How far along was Rinoa when you fought Adel?"

"A week."

"Then it doesn't matter whether life exists that early or not. The magic decided they were good enough. And if the magic infected your daughter a week after conception, it could have infected Adel and Larissa half a week after conception, before the egg split. That would explain how the magic was split in two."

Yes. But now they knew there were three sorceresses. "And it split again when Ultimecia traveled back in time?" he commented slowly, carefully keeping his emotions under check.

"No," Harren answered from where he hadn't moved. "She simply misplaced space. If you're child becomes or begets Ultimecia, then she is a part of Adel's line. Edea and Rinoa are then part of Adel's line due to their descent from Ultimecia, which means the person who accepted Rinoa's magic is also a part of Adel's line. If instead, it is Larissa's successor who becomes or begets Ultimecia, then your daughter is Adel's sole descendant while Edea, Rinoa and this third are of Larissa's line. In either case, by traveling back in time, she only moved the magic through space. It causes a descendant in her line to live in the same time she lives. But it is the same line of magic."

Squall had to go through that in his head twice more before he thought he understood it. Ultimecia alive in a time where her descendants were alive. Of course she wouldn't have made anything easy.

He shifted and his reflection in the window's dark glass came into focus. "Do you regret becoming Adel's knight?"

"Do you regret becoming Rinoa's?"

Squall stared at his reflection. Did he?

Harren sighed deeply. "As you see, there is no easy answer." He paused, and when he spoke again, his tone had changed. "When Adel first came to me with a solution for the civil war, I thought it was an answer from some god. I idolized him. He gave me what I'd spent years fighting for so I gladly accepted the bond as a debt owed. But then things changed… I regret the things I was party to in that presidential palace. I regret that I didn't leave sooner. I remember those feelings. But as a guardian force, regret does not matter. The bond between sorceress and guardian force is absolute. Their will is our will. Their safety is our need. To defy doesn't even come into question. Only when the sorceress is no more does free will become ours again."

Fetus's being infected with magic. Sorceresses killing their knights. Knights becoming guardian forces… The fact that he had come so close to the same fate himself? He wondered briefly once more if this wasn't all just a nightmare he was having, his body still lying in those ruins. But no. This was too elaborate to be a nightmare.

"Adel didn't die until five years ago." He said. "Did you have no free will then, while she was sealed in space?"

"In the beginning, no. If I could have gotten myself into space to unlock her seal, I would have without hesitation but I couldn't get through the atmosphere. After a while there was nothing to do _but_ to have free will. I cannot say I understand it to the core, only that it was a gradual process. For another, whose sorceress dies, I imagine it is a quicker transition."

Yet another thing that only another guardian forces might be able to tell him. He thought of the lab where he knew they were sealed, then banished the thought as foolish.

It brought to mind the act of sealing however, and his thoughts stuck. He hadn't thought much about sealing the energies they'd found during the war, at the time. Usually there had been no resistance and the times that there _had_ been resistance, the forces had agreed to be sealed after being defeated in combat. But he doubted they knew exactly what they'd been agreeing to. _He_ hadn't known what they were agreeing to.

Those fights themselves proved that they were sealing conscious, sentient beings, but he hadn't thought on it. He'd taken it as a given, as his right as SeeD.

He'd been so young, so naïve.

He listed all their names to himself. Then he thought about all of them being human and knights to sorceresses. He'd never heard mention of any sorceresses before Adel. But if there were seventeen – or was it twenty-two - guardian forces, then there were at least that many sorceresses. Had there been any other male sorceress? Why the cover story of Larissa being Adel? Why was it so important that everyone believe the magic was restricted to females.

All their knowledge came from Dr. Odine. The doctor had gotten his information from researching Adel. If Adel had tricked everyone, Dr. Odine included, into believing a male couldn't host the magic, what else had he led them all to believe? What facts were true and which were lies? He was basing all his knowledge, all his hope for helping Chayla on those facts. If they were false…

"Daddy? Wake up daddy."

He started at the sound of Chayla's voice and turned to scan the room. Halfway around, he found himself lying sideways and looking into Chayla's face. He pushed himself up onto an elbow and glanced around at the bedroom he was suddenly in and the bed that he was suddenly lying on. There was sunlight coming in through the window. He was back.

_**Let us speak later. There is much to think on, on both our parts. **_

He didn't know if he wanted to speak with the guardian force more.

_**I know I have angered you. I will leave if you prefer, but know that I did what I thought best. I would hate to again see a good man break because he did not allow himself to bend. **_

With that Harren's presence receded.

Chayla touched a finger to his cheek. "Did you have a nightmare, daddy?"

He brought a hand up to his own face and realized it was wet with tears. He wiped at them hastily. "Yea," he said roughly. "Just a nightmare."

"Do you wan a back rub?"

He sat up so he could pick her up to hold her against him. "No. I just want to hold you." Chayla didn't seem to mind that. She pressed herself up against him, tucking her chocobo doll aside to do so. "It's okay daddy. I'm here now. You don't haf to be afraid," she said, repeating the words that he said to her when she woke up from nightmares. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair.

He wouldn't let what had happened to Rinoa happen to Chayla.

He would save her.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 9: Linkin Park – One Step Closer


	10. Part 1: Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"_I accepted who I was. But you never did, Squall. You gave up on me."_

It hadn't taken Radeen long to discover that his black-haired stranger worked in the large Estharian labs in the center of the city. The Odine laboratories. He would enter the building every morning and leave it periodically to drive other people around the city. When he wasn't driving people around, he spent his time on the third floor.

Radeen's mother had warned him about staying away from the man Odine and his laboratories, and he had for the most part, only occasionally dropping by to look in on the black haired man.

But she'd also told him to stay on SeeD's trail, and his lead had led him back here.

He supposed they were getting desperate if they had gone to Dr. Odine for answers, the _supposed_ expert on the magical powers. Radeen had read copies of the man's work in the castle library. The man was no expert.

But he wouldn't judge them, not when they were doing his work for him, tracking down the girl sorceress.

At the moment however he wasn't interested in the blonde man with the mark on his face, or his brunette partner, or even the friend's apartment where they had been staying. His black haired stranger had exited through the doors and was headed straight towards him. Well… not straight at him, since he was sitting on the roof of the store across and perpendicular from the labs. Even so, he felt himself holding his breath until the man stopped almost underneath him and turned to lean his back against the wall.

Radeen laid an elbow on his thigh and leaned forward to look down at the black hair. He still marveled at the color each time he saw it. The man was looking at a small device in his hands and moving his fingers over it but Radeen didn't know what the little device did besides upset the man. As expected, he cursed and slid the thing into his pocket, before sighing. Unexpectedly, however, Radeen suddenly found himself staring into the man's eyes as he tilted his head back.

They stared at one another for a second and then the man gave a startled shout and ducked forward, raising his arms over his head. He lowered them after a moment and twisted to look up at Radeen again. "Geez, I thought you were falling on me!" He had a singsong voice, low and melodious. Radeen liked it immediately. "What are you doing up there?"

Radeen straightened and place his hands on either side of his knees on the edge of the roof. "I'm watching," he replied, nervous but also a little delighted at this possibility of conversation. He'd talked to people outside of the castle since his escape, but never to someone that made him feel like this man made him feel; curious and enchanted.

The man glanced around himself and then looked back up at him. "Watching what?"

"You."

The man blinked at him blankly, his body tightening, and Radeen pulled back a little wondering what had been wrong with the statement. He'd gotten that look before and was beginning to understand that it occurred when the person got uncomfortable. They never stayed long after they gave him that look.

He didn't want this man to leave. He struggled to find something to say, something to salvage the sudden silence. But before he could come up with something the man spoke. "Oh." It was more a sound than a word. Something to fill the silence. "Well…" he coughed, looking away, and Radeen felt his stomach falling.

But then, the man shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced back up at him under his lashes. There was something in that glance; something that gave Radeen hope. "My name is Radeen," he supplied.

The man's lips twitched slightly. "I'm Kantos."

Radeen said the name to himself silently, treasuring it.

"How did you get up there?" Kantos said suddenly, and Radeen blinked him back into focus. Then he glanced around himself, at the roof he was sitting on and the street below him. "More importantly," Kantos continued. "How are you going to get _down_?"

This was treading dangerous ground. His mother had been very explicit about him keeping his magic hidden while he was away from the castle. And he didn't want to scare Kantos away. Not when thigs were only just getting interesting. He looked down at the ground beneath him. A jump and a flap of the wings would have been perfect. He'd never jumped from so high without the aid of his wings before but it wasn't that far.

He glanced at Kantos and smiled reassuringly, then pushed himself off the roof.

He heard a shout of surprise, a whoosh of air and then his feet connected with the earth. He bent his knees to absorb the impact and that's when it went wrong. One ankle twisted underneath him and he crumpled over it with a grunt of surprise.

He hardly had time to process what had happened before there were hands on him, pulling him up and patting at him. "Hyne's Balls, you _jumped_!" Those hands moved to his ankle and Radeen hissed as pain laced up his leg at the contact. "It feels sprained," Kantos said, looking up from where he was kneeling in front of Radeen. "You're lucky it's not broken. What were you _thinking_!"

Radeen was busy regarding Kantos's hands which were cradling his ankle. The grip was gentle and warm, something he hadn't felt in a long time. He tried to focus on the words asked. Sprained? A Curaga or two and it would be fine. But Kantos didn't know he could heal it himself. So he simply said, "It'll heal," not knowing what else to say.

Kantos glanced back at the Odine laboratories, then turned back. "Come on," he demanded. "There's a clinic on the first floor in that building there. They'll have something that can help." He stood and held out both hands.

Radeen placed his own hands in the other mans' and let himself be pulled up on his good foot, wondering how the man thought he would get them across the street. His question was answered when Kantos moved in close to his side, wrapping a hand around his waist and draping one of Radeen's arms around his shoulders. "Alright, let's go," he said and took a step forward.

Radeen followed his lead and let the shorter man support him since that was what he seemed to want. They were close, really close. Kantos' black hair was just under her nose and he couldn't help but inhale a clean woodsy scent. It was intoxicating.

He shifted closer to the man, and wondered what all his redhead childhood companions would think if he brought this black haired man back with him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zell was watching the gloomy sky outside of Quistis' impressive apartment windows when Irvine sighed on the other side of the table from him, his forehead cradled in his interlocked fingers. He'd been staring down into his coffee mug for the last half hour with that melancholy expression. Zell couldn't guess what was going through his friend's head, but he recognized a headache when he saw one. Taking pity on the guy, Zell dug into one of his jacket pockets for a packet of pain relievers and offered them over. Irvine thanked him softly and swallowed them down with a chug of the coffee.

The table between them was scattered with past SeeD reports. With no lead at the moment, they'd backslid into rechecking anything and everything submitted by internationally stationed SeeD. Now that they knew there was possibly a second sorceress alive, XU had conjectured that there might be information regarding her existence in a report, originally disregarded as unrelated.

Zell had only made it through two years of reports though before he found himself reading the same sentence over and over again. There were too many other contemplations fluttering through his mind for him to concentrate, and he'd given the task up as a lot cause. Irvine had given up even before he had. They'd both been locked in their own thoughts ever since, Zell staring out the window and Irvine staring into his coffee.

The sigh had brought Zell's attention back into the room however and to the miserable expression on Irvine's face. He bounced his leg as he considered it. He was fairly certain that whatever was bothering Irvine had to do with whatever he'd seen when he'd had Ellone take him back into Squall's past. He'd brooded in this exact manner after he'd gone back the first time to confirm their friend's deaths.

Now it turned out that he'd lied about the manner of those deaths and kept the details to himself. Which meant, if he was brooding again, that he had once again seen something shocking and was keeping to himself. A good friend would ask, would offer to share the burden. But Zell didn't want to. Learning the truth about the facts Irvine had hidden the first time had hurt.

When he'd received that call about Squall's missed communication, when he'd arrived on the scene to see the evidence of his friend's battle and ultimate ends, he'd lost some of his optimism and joyfulness for life. The tragedy had stolen his innocence and replaced it with cynicism. It had aged him like nothing else could have.

Irvine's reveal that Squall had knowingly tried to drown the mother of his child and that Rinoa had used the very magic that had bonded the two of them together to bring him down… It had taken away even more of his now small reserve for lightheartedness. What was the use of lightheartedness in a world where two people could be reduced to such a point? In a world where love could be transformed into such animosity?

He wasn't sure his lightheartedness could survive learning that there was more heartache to be known.

He had an uneasy feeling that he was going to find out, whether he wanted to or not.

The feeling increased the moment Quistis entered the apartment, a worried expression on her face. She dumped her bag on the couch and came over to the kitchen table they were sitting at and pulled a chair perpendicular to each of them out so she could drop into it heavily. "Well, Ellone is alright," She said as she took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. "It doesn't look like she's slept all that much. But she assured me she'd be coming back into work tomorrow." She looked over at Irvine with a dark look. "I doubt she'll ever want to speak to _you_ again however. Whatever the two of you did together, it's messed her up pretty badly."

Irvine winced slightly and they both saw it. "What _exactly_ did you make her do?" Quistis asked suspiciously.

"I didn't _make_ her do anything," Irvine answered with an irate look. "She agreed."

"What happened?" Quistis repeated tolerantly, her voice softening. Zell recognized the big sister approach she'd just reverted to, something she did when she was worried about one of them. She had been as aware of Irvine's moodiness as Zell had been. But while he was content to let the brunette fester in it, Quistis would not. He clenched his hands on his knees under the table.

"She got through the block," Irvine finally confided, glancing up to gauge their reactions. "She… shoved me in. But… Squall felt it. He told her to stop, to leave."

Quistis sucked in a breath. "Oh, god," she whispered, her expression stricken. "After all that time where she refused to help because of his request…and then to have him _know_…" Irvine sighed and went back to staring into his coffee, and Quistis shut her mouth. Zell regarded Quistis, silently pleading with her to leave the topic alone.

Of course she didn't. "Tell me you found something in the memories, something useful? Please tell me you didn't traumatize Ellone for _nothing_."

Irvine turned a stark look full of horror on Quistis but a second later it was gone. Zell had seen it though. He felt sick. He wanted to leave the table, leave the conversation unfolding behind him, but he couldn't move; his body was frozen. Irvine was shaking off his moody thoughts, sitting up and preparing to give them the important details while keeping everything else quiet, and Zell found that he couldn't move.

"It helped." Irvine answered. "It's why I called for the meeting with Odine."

"You're questions about Adel and Time Compression causing a different reality?"

"Those," Irvine nodded. "I had a lot more. But he got me distracted with the idea of a second sorceress. And then…" he waved a hand in a vague motion. And then Laguna had interrupted the meeting and stolen the doctor away. None of them had seen either man since, and Laguna's aide had said that the president was busy and couldn't be disturbed today.

"Well?" Quistis asked. "What did you see? What _added_ questions did they give us?"

"Ellone skipped through a few memories," he started, "from the time Rinoa told Squall she was pregnant up to the day she put the block on his memories. _That_ I did confirm." he added with emphasis. "Rinoa used some kind of magic to block us out when she realized we were looking into Squall's past. Actually…" and here he looked a little bewildered. "I think I'm the reason she did. I was in a memory when Squall mentioned Laguna's fairies, and that's when she created the block."

Zell tried to work that through his head. Rinoa had prevented them from looking at Squall's memories some time five years ago. But Irvine had only successfully tried looking at memories before the block a few days ago. "So, you went back to find a way around the block and in the process caused Rinoa to create that very block?" he asked, pulled into the conversation despite himself.

Irvine's expression shuttered briefly but then returned to normal. "She just wasn't herself."

"She was pregnant. Every pregnant female is a little testy."

Irvine shook his head. "It was more extreme than that. I think Ellone was concerned, because she took me back to where we both remembered Rinoa acting normal – back right after the war. Then she pulled me forward through a series of memories to try and see where it changed. But there was no _one _point. It just got progressively worse the further into the pregnancy we went." Here he paused and looked at Quistis. "Quis, did you ever think about the implications of the amber eye color?"

Quistis leaned her elbows on the table. "Of course. They were constant on Ultimecia, and on Edea when Ultimecia possessed her. There was nothing in the records that Selphie and I combed through but we assumed that the color manifested when the magic got the better of their bodies. Zell mentioned that Rinoa's eyes were amber to Dr. Odine? I assumed that you meant during the fight between her and Squall. After the birth." She phrased her last sentence as a question, reading in Irvine's tense posture than something was up.

"It's something I wanted to clarify with Odine." He admitted, looking back and forth between Quistis and Zell. "I wasn't referring to that last memory," he finally said, directing the statement to Quistis. "That was something else I confirmed. I saw Rinoa with amber eyes while she was still pregnant. It was the amber eyes connected with the way she was acting that made me realize it."

"Realize what?"

He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "The amber eyes. What if they're an indication of madness? Of insanity?"

Quistis blinked at him, then stole a glance in Zell's direction. He looked away.

"Think about it," Irvine urged. "Wouldn't you consider wanting to compress time so that you're a living god to be insane?"

"Mad for power. Sure," Quistis answered.

"And Edea. Do you remember the orphanage? Do you remember Edea's outbursts?"

Quistis' brow furrowed. Zell's did too. "Vaguely…? Now that you mention it…"

It started to come back to Zell too. It was how it worked with any of the memories they'd lost while junctioning the Guardian Forces. It took someone or something to trigger the memory back into focus, and even then, the memories were vague, undetailed. But he could vaguely remember something about Edea shattering a cup on a table somewhere.

Irvine watched them struggle with it for a moment. He never _had_ junctioned, even during the war, refusing the implant when it had been offered. He shook his head at them. "Well she had moments where she lost control – froze things by accident. And _I_ remember. Her eyes were always amber when she lost control."

"I don't know if I'd call that insanity, per say," Quistis argued.

Irvine shrugged. "Maybe. All I know for sure is that when Rinoa was at her worst in those memories Ellone took me through, when she was the most… hateful, her eyes were amber. I could see it, looking out from Squall's eyes; see that she'd… lost a regard for morals and consequences." He leaned forward over the table again, grim. "She was looking and acting insane to me, months before she gave birth. _I_ think Squall saw it and that's why he took her to the vacation house."

Zell looked down at his hands, still clenched on his knees. Squall… he was only beginning to grasp the depth of the secrets his friend had kept.

Quistis shook her head. "I concede that something must have gone wrong mentally for her to attack Squall like she did, but you can't convince me Rinoa was truly _insane_ for longer than that day with so little information. You keep saying she was worse. What exactly do you mean? What did Squall see?" Irvine leaned back in his seat and shook his head. "Whatever you think I don't want to hear, I was her friend too," Quistis stated harshly. "I-" she glanced at Zell, saw his grimace "-we, deserve the truth."

But once they had it, would they truly want it?

"Maybe we could wait until Selphie-" Zell started, a last ditch effort to avoid the conversation verbally since he couldn't seem to leave it physically.

But Quistis shook her head, interrupting his plea. "Irvine?"

Irvine stared at her. "You don't want to know. And there's really no point-"

"You're withholding information about the investigation." Quistis interrupted. "I could have you pulled for it."

"Quistis," Irvine sighed, looking pained.

"More importantly," Quistis continued in a softer voice. "I can see it's tearing you apart inside. You don't need to keep it all to yourself. It is not your job to shield us from the truth."

Irvine looked down into coffee mug, avoiding looking at them. He opened his mouth, then closed it. Whatever it was, it was bad. Zell unclenched his fists, placed his palms on the table, trying to brace himself.

Irvine opened his mouth again, slowly. "She was abusing him, mentally and… physically."

Zell heard Quistis' breath leave her in a whoosh. He stared at Irvine and his friend stared back, eyes heavy with sadness. Zell jerked his eyes away from it and stood up, his chair scraping along the floor behind him. Neither Quistis nor Irvine said anything as he stalked away from them to the windows and leaned his head against the glass.

He hugged himself, trying to contain his despair. Rinoa? Abusive? That was beyond anything he could have imagined. It was inconceivable. It was madness.

"I don't understand." Quistis said from the table. "Rinoa would never…"

"Exactly," Irvine replied quietly. "_Rinoa_ wouldn't. But an insane sorceress could and would. It's the only way I can explain what I saw. And it made me think of all the other times I'd seen amber eyes on a Sorceress. What if they're connected? What if there's something about being a sorceress that causes the sorceress to go mad?"

Zell toned out of the conversation after that. Could it be explained so easily? Rinoa went insane because she was a sorceress? Could all this heartache be blamed on something so simple? Something so small?

Did it affect all sorceresses?

The thought brought him back to his earlier contemplations, before Quistis had arrived. About the child sorceress.

He was almost certain now, after having compared the sketch of the child to Rinoa's face.

The child was Squall's and Rinoa's.

The best that he could guess was that Rinoa had had twins. One had survived and one hadn't. One had been buried, and the other had received Rinoa's magic.

He had no proof. He could be wrong. He could be falling into the trap of ignoring the facts in front of him simply because he didn't want to see them. He could just be seeing what he wanted to see because he _wanted_ there to be something left of his two friends, taken from this world so cruelly.

But if he was right, there was a child out there with the genes of two of his friends, a continuation of them both. He grasped the idea close now. Despite what had happened, despite the appalling things that his friends had ended up doing to each other, something beautiful had come from it all. It gave him a sort of comfort.

Except that he wasn't sure he should. A child was a beautiful thing, yes. A child of Squall's and Rinoa's was even more wonderful. But this child had sorceronic power, and that made her a target to SeeD, no matter who her parents had been.

He'd seen Ultimecia's world. He knew there was a very high possibility that the child would become the woman. But if she _didn't_, and she _was_ Squall and Rinoa's child…

Would she go mad, like it seemed her mother had?

He'd been trying to decide whether or not to tell the gang his theory. Trying to decide if it would change anything to know. Was he doing the exact same thing that Irvine had done, keeping things hidden because he didn't want to cause his friends anymore undue pain? Because, deep down, he feared it would bring more pain than joy if he was right about the girl's parentage.

Because, deep down, he doubted that it would matter in their world of fear.

Zell stopped the thoughts there. He didn't want to think too closely on what would happen once they caught up to the child. First things were first. He needed to see the child with his own eyes and confirm his theory. He wanted to make sure what he was seeing in the sketch was there in reality.

Of course, they'd have to get through the man before they could reach the girl. It was the man that truly baffled Zell. Where had he come from and how had he become involved? It was clear from the last witness's account in Timber that the child considered the man as a father. That argued that he'd been with the child for a while, possibly from the very beginning.

Had he known Squall and Rinoa or was he just a stranger? Had he stumbled on the crime scene and found the second child, alone and an orphan? Had he realized what the child was, or had he discovered it later after taking her in? Did he keep her after the inevitable discovery out of affection or greed?

He didn't know. What he did know was that the man had raised her. He had taken care of her. Zell had seen the house they had lived in, had seen the normalcy of it. The witness had described a functional, clean, happy child and a caring father.

Zell hated him for that, for having that connection to Squall and Rinoa, when he didn't.

"And Rinoa's transfer?" Quistis asked suddenly from behind him. Zell started and glanced over his shoulder. He had no idea what Quistis and Irvine had been saying to each other while he'd been lost in his thoughts, but something had shifted in their tones. "That's why you convinced Ellone to take you back into Squall's memories in the first place, wasn't it?" Quistis continued. "To see if Squall knew anything about where this girl who she gave her magic to came from?"

Zell kept his silence.

"You didn't find anything did you?" Quistis accused when Irvine didn't answer right away.

Irvine grimaced. "If there's any information, it's still hidden behind that block."

"Ellone is _not _going to give you another chance."

"I know," Irvine snapped. "I'm not going to ask." He looked away, fiddling with his coffee mug. "I don't think it's possible to get through the block, anyways. Not without hurting Squall; physically I mean. It's… not worth that."

So that was it. Irvine's grand plan, broken and ground underfoot. He'd been so sure that he'd find the answers he wanted in Squall's memories. It had helped by sending them to Dr. Odine where they'd learned about the presence of a second sorceress. And it had added credence to Zell's then undeveloped theory. But it wasn't what Irvine had hoped for. And in regards to any details on the child sorceress it'd given them no new leads.

Quistis was looking at the papers scattered on the table as if only then realizing they were there. She picked one up, scanned it and laid it back down again. "This is crazy," she announced, leaning forward into a braced hand. "How are there suddenly _two_ sorceresses?"

"If Dr. Odine is right that Rinoa couldn't have received Adel's power because she already received Edea's, then we have whoever she transferred to _and_ this girl that Rinoa transferred to," Irvine stated.

"I know, I know," Quistis retorted, annoyed, and lifted her face from her hands. "I remember what the doctor said. It's just… all these years and we never even knew?"

"It's not like the transfers are visible," Zell spoke up from where he stood. "We assumed Rinoa had received them because she was the only female there, but it's not like there was a ball of light that passed from one person to another." He turned to face them but didn't move from the window. "We thought there was a distance restriction because Rinoa was near Edea when she got the magic, and Ultimecia traveled literally to Edea's side to transfer her magic, but…"

"But maybe not," Quistis finished. "Do you think it transferred to someone outside of that room?"

"It had to have," Irvine commented. "But did it attach itself to the next closest female or did it find someone farther away? How far away would someone have to be?"

Quistis looked down at herself, her expression troubled. "Do you think it's possible that someone might not _know_ they'd received the powers?"

Irvine guffawed. "It's not _you_, Quistis."

She looked up and scowled at him. "I know that. But what if…?"

He shrugged. "Well, Edea didn't seem to realize that she'd transferred her magic to Rinoa when we almost killed her that time in Galbadia Garden. She was still worried about Ultimecia possessing her until she tried to use the magic in Esthar and realized it was gone. But Rinoa seemed to know fairly quickly that something had changed once she woke up."

'Well Ultimecia _had_ just possessed her and freed Adel," Zell added wryly.

Quistis removed her glasses so that she could rub at her eyes again. "So what _are_ the facts that we know for sure?" she asked as she replaced her glasses, and held up a hand to tick off. "We know that there are two sorceresses now. We know that a sorceress can't die without giving her magic to someone, and so must be sealed."

"Those are the two things that matter the most," Irvine stated before Quistis could tick off another finger. "We can sit here and question everything to death, but what's the point?

Zell's phone vibrated in his pocket. He reached for it.

"One of us needs to call Selphie," Quistis added from where she sat. "If Dr. Odine was right about there not being any records on Sorceresses because Adel had them all destroyed then it's pointless to have her combing information for references.

Zell couldn't imagine that XU would like that bit of news at all. The 'wall' in their strategy room that Selphie had been working on for years at least made it _look_ like they were making some kind of progress. He accepted the call, not recognizing the number. "Hello?"

"Dincht? It's Carey; on the collection team. About the Timber possessions you called in to have picked up for evidence? We came over to pack them up but there's nothing here."

"What?" Both Irvine and Quistis looked over sharply at his tone.

"There's nothing here." She repeated. "The landlord says a woman by the name of Alina Kristatis picked it all up for a thrift store delivery."

"Thanks Carey," he said and snapped the phone shut. He glanced at Irvine. "We just got our lead. He's in Deling."

"Deling?" Irvine repeated hungrily, shoving aside his coffee and standing.

"I'll explain on the way," Zell answered. "Right now, we need to find a woman named Alina."

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_Mira? Eva? Nora? Lillian? Annabelle? _

Squall sighed and lifted his arm off of his eyes so that he could stare up at the ceiling above him. Annabelle? Chayla and Annabelle? No, Annabelle would inevitably get shortened to Anna or Ann. Chayla and Eva? Eva wasn't too bad. It was short, cute.

Eva?

He whispered it aloud, hesitantly.

Chayla's play chatter stopped briefly and he turned his head sideways to look at her. She had been playing on the floor to the side of the bed, various toys scattered around her, but now she was looking at him with her head cocked. "Eva?" she repeated.

He shook his head and turned back to stare at the ceiling and a moment later her play chatter began again.

Would there be anything left? Would the grave still be there?

He dragged his arm back over his eyes to block out the light. Of course not. SeeD would have swept that place dry. Everything would have been taken in as evidence. He had even counted on it, in the beginning. No one had known there would be twins. They would have found the bones. They would have had no reason to go searching for anything. Child accounted for, mother accounted for, father… well that had been a gamble but with the Blue Dragon prints he had hoped that his death could be explained if not proved.

It had, somehow. The feeling of "fairies" he'd gotten occasionally throughout Rinoa's pregnancy, when someone from the future had been looking back at his past, had never returned. No one had come looking.

Not until two years later. Not until a civilian had seen Chayla's wings in Esthar.

His first daughter had given them that. She had given them those two years. But her remains would have been found, tested… taken.

He only had the memory of her to mourn.

He rubbed a hand roughly over his face and then sat up and left the bed. He didn't have the luxury of mourning. Not now. There were too many questions that needed answers; too many things that were getting out of control. He needed to talk to Alina before SeeD decided to come knocking again. He needed to prevent any knowledge of his and Chayla's presence here getting out. He needed to finish his conversation with Harren so that the man would unjunction himself and leave Squall to his own mind. There were a million things to think about. But, first; he needed to double check on something.

He closed the blinds in the room, then went and shut the bedroom door. Once the room was closed in and he was sure it wasn't possible for anyone to see anything, he sat down in front of Chayla and crossed his legs underneath himself. Chayla grinned at him and put one of her dolls into his hands, instructing him to play along. He moved the doll around indulgently for a little bit before he set it aside gently. "Chayla?"

"Hum?" she responded, pausing in her play and looking up at him with her big grey eyes.

He reached forward and smoothed back her hair from her face. "Have you been feeling okay?"

Her brow scrunched up a little in confusion. "Yea."

Squall drew in a long breath, trying to decide how to word what he wanted to ask. "You haven't felt… angry, at all… have you?" he finally enquired.

Chayla made a face and cocked her head. "No. Are we supposed ta be mad at someone?"

"No." Squall leaned forward and gently pulled the dolls out of her lax hands, setting them aside with the one he'd discarded. "Chayla? Can you do something for me?" Chayla nodded instantly. "Can you bring out your wings for me?"

Her expression shuttered a little. "But… you said ta never open them."

Squall swallowed and nodded. "Yes. And you've been _really_ good at keeping them hidden."

"'Cept when we had ta move," she mumbled, looking down, but not before he caught a glimpse of the shame in her look.

Squall put a finger under her chin and urged her face up so that he could look at her. "That was an _accident_, Chayla. We all have accidents sometimes. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yea?" she asked, hopeful.

"Yea," he repeated and her face lit up. _Mistake 96_, he noted wearily to himself. _Don't assume a child won't blame herself because she's young._ Next time he'd have to make sure he assured her right after it happens.

_Next time_… he realized what he was thinking and shook the thought away.

"Daddy?"

"Yes?" he asked, refocusing on her.

She stared at him unhappily. "Do we haf to leave again? Even though I was good? Are the bad guys here?"

Squall sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, cringing silently at her last statement. "They're not _bad_ guys, Chayla."

"But they're after us." Squall nodded. "And they'll take my wings away. And lock us up in dungeons. Those are bad guys' daddy. It's in all the books."

Squall huffed out a laugh, and shook his head in exasperation. "Alright. I guess you're right." There was time enough later to explain it, when she was older and would be able to understand it a little better.

"Do we haf to leave again?" Chayla repeated.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "They might not know we're here."

If they had only followed Alina here because she had been their neighbor, it could still be safe. Alina just had to stay out of their hands. The thought sent a million others cascading through his mind. Could Alina lie convincingly enough? SeeD were trained to detect lies in body language and tone. She'd never been able to lie convincingly enough to _him_. Could she stand up against Zell?

Zell…

Squall closed his eyes briefly, derailed by the thought of the blonde SeeD.

He shook it off and opened his eyes. He'd talk to Alina today; decide on how to proceed. But first he needed to make sure that Chayla was alright. The talk with Harren during the night had awakened a long lost burrowed fear that his daughter had inherited Rinoa's madness.

"We'll have to see what happens," he concluded. He braced a hand on his knee and leaned forward slightly. "I know I said that you had to keep your wings hidden, but sometimes, when it's just you and me, we should check them."

"How come?"

"To… make sure that they are still just as beautiful as you are."

Chayla accepted that readily enough and scrunched her eyes closed. A second later they were there, appearing through her shirt and stretching out behind her back, displacing the air with their sudden appearance. Chayla sighed in happiness and opened her eyes as her wings stretched to their full capacity before curling back in a little, as if reveling in the sudden freedom.

Ignoring a twinge in his own back, Squall took them it carefully, trying to ignore his sudden anxiety. It was always a little startling to see them attached to his daughter. There was something fundamentally disquieting to see the wings he'd so often seen on maddened women on a child; on _his_ child. He tried to shake it off and focus on the color.

Pure white. There was no suggestion of any discoloration.

He leaned up on his knees for better reach and nudged one wing back a little so that he could see the spot where feathers and shirt connected at her back. No hint of grey or black there either. He let out a sigh of relief and sat back.

'Well?" Chayla asked, craning her neck to try and see the spot he'd searched.

"Still beautiful," he told her, smiling. "Can you put them away now?"

"Do I have to?" Chayla pouted and her wings stretched out again, one brushing up against the bed.

Squall exhaled heavily. "Please Chayla. It's not safe to have them out."

Chayla looked away, sullen. "When _will_ it be safe?"

"Someday," he promised. When that didn't produce a response he tried again. "Someday I'll take us up into the mountains where it's just you and me, and you can have them out all afternoon."

That seemed to be good enough because Chayla nodded. There was still disappointment in her face but the wings disappeared when she concentrated on it. A scrunch of the eyes was all it took. She opened her eyes and glanced at him and he nodded in gratitude.

And then Rinoa appeared, sitting on the ground next to Chayla. For a moment, he just gaped – the suddenly obvious similarities between mother and daughter hitting him like a punch to the solar plexus. Then he surged forward and pulled Chayla away from her, tucking her against his stomach and twisting a little as if to hide her from the woman.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow.

Harren had been wrong. He'd thought Squall had been on the threshold of fracturing his mind. Squall knew he'd already passed that point a long time ago.

For him it had been a gradual process. Something inside of him had broken that day he'd pushed Rinoa's head under the water. He'd felt it; a crack through his very being. He'd been watching the psychosis develop ever since.

But as long as it didn't affect his ability to keep Chayla safe, he hadn't seen the harm in it. He'd done his research and he knew what his options would be if he sought out some kind of diagnosis from doctors. At best, he'd be medicated up to his gills and useless. At worst he'd be confined somewhere and Chayla would be taken away from him.

No, it had been better to just let it run its course.

Although he supposed it was a little ironic, his checking Chayla's wings for hints of insanity while he was staring his insanity in the eyes.

"Where are your wings?" Rinoa asked in a curious tone.

"My _what_?"

"Daddy?" Chayla asked, squirming in his hold. "What is it?"

Rinoa stared at him, her eyes turning hard like she thought he was hiding something. "Your wings."

"I don't…" but then he realized. The last time he had seen her had been that night he'd seen those shadow wings during the storm. A twinge of pain coursed through his back at the memory and he winced. He reached behind him with a free hand to place it on his lower back in unease. "I don't _have_ wings," he told Rinoa softly.

Rinoa disagreed. "I _saw_ them. Where did you get them?"

"Daddy?" Chayla whispered and he realized she'd gone completely still against him. He glanced down at her, at her wide eyes focused on him.

Squall cursed to himself silently. He looked up at Rinoa and jerked his head towards the bedroom door. She rolled her eyes but stood up and strolled towards the door and then through it. Slightly surprised that she had acquiesced so easily, he waited until she had disappeared through the door before he loosened his hold on Chayla and shifted her back to the floor by her toys.

"Here," he said, nudging her princess doll into her hands. "Go back to your playing. Daddy's going to go get some medicine for his head."

"Is it an angel?"

Squall was halfway to his feet but he froze and glanced back at his daughter. "What?"

"Hailey says that angels come down from heaven and talk to us sometimes. Is that who you were talking to? Do you have an angel?"

Squall tried to smile for her but was doubtful about its success. "No, Chayla. It's not an angel."

"What is it then? Is it cuz of what happened when you were fighting the monsters?"

Squall settled back on his knees and sighed, letting go of the flimsy hope that he'd be able to get away without explaining. He should have been more careful. Any child catching their parent talking to empty air was going to pry. Chayla was young enough that any made-up excuse would satisfy her but he knew how lies that big always came back biting.

But what did he say? Even he wasn't sure exactly what was real and what wasn't.

The memories. Those were real. He relived events that had happened, whether they were his own or someone else's. He didn't know _why_ he could, or what it meant, but it was real.

The voice in his head. Harren; or Odin. If the memories were real, then Harren's memories he'd seen were real. Which made the man – or guardian force – in his head real. Him being pulled into his own mind was still a mystery, but one for a later deliberation.

The shadow wings. Those had been a hallucination. He had no doubt about that. He'd recognized each pair of wings: Ultimecia's, Adel's and Rinoa's. The ache in his back had been the only real thing that night, and that had no doubt been connected to the splitting headache that he'd fallen asleep with.

And finally, Rinoa.

No one else could see her. He couldn't see her reflection in any mirrors. But she seemed highly aware of _his_ surroundings. _She_ could see everyone else, even if they couldn't see her. He'd seen her staring at Chayla before. She'd _threatened_ Chayla before. And yet she couldn't touch anything. There had been a short time where he'd revaluated his skepticism in the supernatural and wondered if she was a ghost, haunting him. But she proved that wrong herself every time she did things like mention that she could see his hallucinations. That suggested she was just a part of those same hallucinations.

Besides, she was different. She was more lucid than Rinoa had ever been at the end. And she had Rinoa's brown eyes, not the sorceress amber eyes. She was not the same Rinoa, mad with power, who he had killed to save his and his daughter's lives. But she was not the same Rinoa, innocent of cruelty, that she had been before her pregnancy either.

His version of Rinoa was neither Rinoa Heartily nor Rinoa the Sorceress, but something in between.

He rubbed a hand over his face. Great. He had finally taken the time to consciously go over each of the oddities in his life. It didn't help him figure out how to explain to a four year old why he'd been talking to someone that she couldn't see. It didn't help him figure out how to explain that he thought he was a little insane.

"Chayla, I'm…" he looked around the room, trying to put it in the simplest terms he could. "I'm… sick," he finally concluded.

Her eyes widened and she looked him up and down. "Cuz of the Ton-Tonberries?"

"No," he said, rubbing the back of his neck in agitation, wishing the conversation was over already. "Sick inside here," he finally said and pointed to his head. "It makes daddy see things sometimes, things that aren't real."

"Is that why you take medicine?"

"Those… help," he acquiesced hesitantly, then leaned forward and kissed Chayla's forehead. "It doesn't stop me from taking care of you. It's just something that I have to take care of, okay?"

"Okay," Chayla agreed.

Squall lingered for a second, but she just watched him, so he stood and walked to the door. He turned back before he opened it. Chayla was watching him still, worriedly, but she smiled bravely when she saw him looking and gathered her toys around her more securely, picking up two dolls. Not sure if he'd done either of them a favor with the truth, he opened the door and slipped out into the living room, closing the door behind him softly

Rinoa was strolling around the perimeter of the room. She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the door clicking shut. "Sick?" she repeated. "You think that's what this is?" He stayed in front of the door. Rinoa trailed a hand through the couch as she passed it and cocked her head at him. "You can stand down. I'm not threatening her."

"You have before," he replied, not moving. He knew that she couldn't hurt Chayla, guessed that his mind had conjured up the threat for whatever reason, but he couldn't bring himself to not react to it. It was his job to shield Chayla from any and all threats, no matter how unlikely they were.

Rinoa shrugged "I can't do much in this form, can I?" she said as she continued her pacing along the wall. "Besides, why should I care anymore whether she incinerates the world? No," she added "I've decided I'd rather watch you struggle." She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. "You'll destroy yourself trying to suffocate what she's destined to be."

"She's _not_ Ultimecia," he disputed, following her away from the door.

Rinoa turned to meet him. "She's a monster."

Squall stopped in his tracks when she turned towards him and frowned. "Monsters aren't born. They are created."

"Oh?" Rinoa purred and took a step closer. "And what made me the monster, I wonder." Squall stared at her, at a loss for words and Rinoa leaned towards him further, conspiratorially. "Are you sure they don't just _evolve_? Maybe from an _infection_?" She smiled and turned away again, continued her pacing.

Squall put a hand on the wall to steady himself. Was that true? Could simply having the magic doom a person into becoming a monster, mad with power? No, he couldn't believe it. Edea hadn't fallen that far and she'd held her magic for almost two decades. Harren had said that Larissa was never as far gone as Adel had been. He'd seen the difference between monstrosity and simple instability; between Ultimecia and Edea, and more recently between Adel and Larissa.

Not all sorceress were monsters.

…So what had pushed Rinoa to that point?

"There are two others out there," he called after her, shying away from the question "two other sorceresses that could be Ultimecia." She didn't seem to hear him, even though he knew she could. He wondered if she'd known already, or if she just didn't care. He licked his lips. "Who did you transfer your magic to?"

That stopped her. She twisted and stared at him. "What?"

"When you died; who did your magic transfer to?"

Rinoa faced him fully, and quirked an eyebrow. "Seeing as how I was choking on all that water in my lungs, I can't say that I know." She shrugged, looking unconcerned. "It was an undirected transfer."

So there would be no help there. Squall didn't let it bother him. As long as this second or third sorceress kept out of his and Chayla's way, he didn't really care who it was. "I notice you don't have any pictures of the family on display." Rinoa said, making a show of looking around the room. "Worried someone will see and put the pieces together?"

"Why do you hate her?" he asked softly.

Rinoa disappeared and appeared right in front of him, causing him to start back in alarm. "Because, you chose her," she snarled. "Not me."

"I didn't-" he started to deny but she swiped a hand at him, through him viciously, and he cut off.

"You did," she hissed, then retracted her arm. "She was supposed to be sealed if she inherited the magic."

"And you were supposed to transfer your magic to Edea so _yours_ could be sealed," he snapped back. "But you didn't!"

Rinoa smiled, suddenly at ease again. "That was when I truly became the monster in your eyes, wasn't it? When I stopped that old witch's heart. After the two of you tried to trick me." He turned away from her expression, sickened, but she followed him around, getting close so she could look him in the eye. "_I_ accepted who I was. But you never did, Squall. You gave up on me." She shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't mind, not really. What I did mind was that you thought _she_ could do any better? Even after what she did to your _first_ daughter."

It was like a punch to the gut. "Rin," he whispered. "I…"

She crossed her arms. "You think that if you love her enough, she'll be able to resist the corruption? Why? Do you think that I became the monster because you stopped loving me? You're giving yourself too much credit. I become the monster _long_ before you stopped loving me."

"I would have found a way, for all three of us," Squall said, backing away from her, trying to find some distance from the revelation of her jealousness.

"Oh?" Rinoa asked. "What were you going to do? Try to explain to SeeD how _love_ could solve everything? Take me with you when you fled and hope I didn't kill the baby?"

"You never gave me a chance to decide," he rebuffed, angry again. "What were _you_ going to do? Reincarnate me into a guardian and then what? Turn her in? Kill her and let the magic transfer to some other unsuspecting person?"

"Been talking to someone with information, have you?" Rinoa murmured.

"How did you know?" he questioned. "That killing me would reincarnate me?"

Rinoa shrugged. "It was a hunch."

"You mean you didn't know it would work?" he asked incredulously.

Rinoa smiled. "I was a monster, remember?"

Squall turned away from her and leaned on the wall. Had she really not known for sure? Had Edea ever known? She'd never tried to reincarnate Cid, ever. He'd thought that was because she hadn't become as insane as Rinoa had, but maybe she'd never known. Ultimecia hadn't stuck around to explain anything to Edea when she transferred her powers.

He rubbed his eyes and then turned back, leaning his back on the wall behind him so that he could watch her. She was standing in the middle of the room, staring down at one of Chayla's abandoned books. With her in profile she looked softer, more like the Rinoa he remembered from early on in the pregnancy. It caused his chest to ache a little.

There was a deeper reason why he had never done anything about his madness. In truth, he didn't _want_ to get rid of the hallucinations. There had always been ways. He could have stolen medication. There had been opportunities and he had the skill. But trying to fix his madness could cause Rinoa to disappear.

It was probably madness in itself, but, despite her threats to his daughter and the way she brought back feelings of hurt and guilt with just a few words, he didn't want her to disappear. She was his only connection to the Rinoa he had once loved; his only connection to the life he'd once had.

He didn't want to lose that.

He took a step away from the wall. "Rinoa?" She looked up at him. "I'm sorry. For… how things turned out."

Her brow furrowed then tightened. "For killing me you mean?"

"For all of it."

She stalked towards him. "I. Don't. Want. Your. Apologies!" She was right in front of him by the time she reached her last word. "I _want_ you to suffer for what you did," she snarled and shoved her arms towards him in angry frustration. Both of them expected her hands to go through him, so when they impacted against his chest and shoved him into the wall, both his breath and Rinoa's stopped. He stared at her and she stared back.

Her hands were cold against his torso.

He looked down at them, but at that same moment the feeling vanished and her hands melted into his chest.

Rinoa jerked them out and took a step back. He pushed a hand against spot that she'd touch, finally gasping out a breath and looked up. "What…?" Rinoa's shocked eyes met his and then she shook her head and disappeared. Squall glanced around the room, but she wasn't in sight. He rushed to the bedroom and yanked open the door. Chayla looked up, but she was alone. Rinoa was gone.

He leaned on the doorframe and rubbed at his chest. The call to Alina would have to wait. He needed to sit down.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina watched the phone until it stopped ringing and then sighed. She didn't think she was ready to speak with Shane yet. She needed a little time after Centra to take everything in.

Centra had shown her exactly the kind of life that Shane lived. Not the family life or the life of raising a daughter as a single father, but a life full of monsters and weapons and unknowns. And it had been very clear that she did not fit into that kind of life.

She'd been powerless when that Tonberry had come after her. It was very likely that the dome had been the only thing that had saved her. She didn't' know anything about fighting or defending herself, let alone protecting someone else. She'd been willing to try and lure the monster away to protect Chayla, but she doubted it would have done much in the end. She'd have just gotten herself killed and Chayla would have been alone.

Squall had known what he was doing when he'd outfitted the car with that dome. It had saved hers and Chayla's lives. But it wouldn't have needed to if she had known how to handle the situation. She hadn't. Instead she'd rushed out like she could save Shane, like she could do something; and then realized too late that she couldn't. She'd jeopardized them all with her foolishness.

She'd seen Chayla looking at her from inside the dome; like she didn't understand why Alina was so weak and incompetent. And compared to her father, Alina was. She was useless.

Shane didn't need her. He'd had everything under control long before she'd come along. If she hadn't been there, Chayla would have still been fine. She wouldn't have been able to get out of the dome, but the man would have shown up still and gone into the ruins after Shane.

It would have all turned out the same, regardless of if she'd been there or not.

Right?

She got up from the couch she was sprawled on and walked into the kitchen. No, she decided as she opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. She was falling into a cycle of self-pity, and that never got anyone anywhere.

She took a sip of the water and stood at the counter, looking out the window above the sink. So she couldn't fight. Maybe she didn't have the right to push herself into excursions like that. But that didn't mean that Shane didn't need her.

Shane didn't know anything about things like zoos and bowling and playdates. She was his connection to a world that his past, whatever that was, hadn't prepared him for; to a civilian world? And Chayla always enjoyed having her around, Alina knew. She was a healthy part of their lives.

But was their life healthy for _her_?

This was the painful topic that kept creeping up on her. The reason why she wasn't sure she should take Shane's call. She'd spent years and years getting over what had happened in Timber when she was a girl, burying the emotions and nightmares. But one afternoon with Shane had brought it all rushing back in full force.

And her actions lately? He was making her do crazy things, trying to rescue him from something she didn't even know anything about. She was in the dark, and she was beginning to think that she always would be. Shane wasn't going to tell her anything important. Not unless something irreversible happened. Or _would_ he fill her in, even then? Maybe he would just leave her behind. Did he think of her as an essential part to his and his daughter's life? She honestly couldn't say. But she could guess.

Something had happened in Shane's past that had caused him to build an impenetrable wall between him and the rest of the world, and she didn't think he was ever going to bring those walls down. Not for her. If he hadn't already, after two years; after all she'd done; after what had happened in those ruins, he wasn't going to.

It was time she accepted that fact.

Was she fooling herself then, thinking that she could do something? Anything? If he wasn't going to open up, what chance did she have of helping him? When did it stop? When was it enough?

She had just wanted to be a friend. She had just wanted to _have_ a friend. But maybe Denna was right. Maybe Shane wasn't the kind of friend she should be associating with. Friendship was two way street, and Shane hadn't given her anything in return but secrets. He'd accepted her; gotten used to her always butting in; had even accepted her help occasionally with Chayla. But he hadn't ever given her a genuine reason to stay.

She'd been following her emotions this whole time. Maybe it was time to do the logical and smart thing.

So what _was_ the smart thing to do?

Her thought process was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone. When it only vibrated once, she knew it was text and not a call. That meant it wasn't Shane. He'd never grasped the art of texting, preferring to make calls instead. Not that he'd ever called her before.

She put the water on the counter and walked back out to the living room where she'd left the phone on the coffee table. It was a text from her sister. She'd left for the library earlier and had been gone most of the day so Alina was glad to hear from her. –_On my way home. I've been thinking. We need to talk.-_

Alina typed out a quick message. –_Agreed. I also need to talk to you.- _Maybe talking aloud about it would help her decide what to do.

She was putting the phone back down on the table when there was a knock on the door. She looked at the wood for a second, wondering if she could ignore it. It was for her sister no doubt. She didn't know anyone in Deling who would be visiting _her_. But she rolled her shoulders and headed for the door. Just because she was in the middle of a life-altering predicament at the moment didn't mean she couldn't be polite and take a message.

She opened the door on two men and immediately suspected that she shouldn't have.

They weren't big men, and they weren't in any uniforms, but intimidation and conviction were rolling off them in waves so potent that she shivered. "Alina Kristatis?" the blonde one asked. He was familiar. He'd been the blonde in the black car; in Timber when she'd gone back for Shane's things. She could see in his eyes that he recognized her too.

"Yes?" she replied, looking between the two men and trying to keep her expression perplexed. Whoever these men where, they weren't here for her sister. "Can I help you?"

"We have a few questions, if you don't mind," the brunette answered, staring at her.

"Who are you?" she demanded, unnerved by the stare.

The blonde, obviously taking the lead, pulled some papers out of his pocket. "We work for SeeD, ma'am." He handed her the papers and she looked down at them in alarm. _SeeD?_ There would be only one reason why a governmental military organization would be looking for her.

Words flashed up at her from the papers as she glanced through it. Legal authority… ability to detect and prosecute crime against the government... Title 28, Section 157… against the law to resist questioning… She felt her breath coming out faster.

"Alina?" she looked up into the eyes of the blonde man. He leaned forward slightly. "Did you, or did you not, take possession of your neighbor's belongings in Timber and bring them here to Deling?"

Aline stared at the blonde man. She wasn't prepared. She was nowhere near prepared for this possibility. She sucked in a breath and tried to shove the door closed in a quick motion, wondering if she could reach her phone. A moment. She just needed a moment. But a boot blocked the door and it was shoved open again.

"Grab her," one of them said, and suddenly she was on the ground gasping, while one of them rolled her over onto her stomach.

"Wait. _Wait_!" she gasped as her arms were pulled behind her back.

"You'll only be detained for as long as it takes to answer some questions. You will not be mistreated or hurt." One of them was saying while something metal and cool wrapped around her wrists.

Faster than Alina could process, she was being pulled outside of her sister's home and into a car. She had time to see Denna, a block away on foot, watching in horror before she was shut in.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall was heating up dinner when the pounding on the door began. He looked over at it, frowning. There were only a few people who knew where they lived, and fewer still who would be pounding on the door like that. He lowered the heat under the skillet and moved to the door, glancing once to determine that Chayla was still lying on the couch with her picture book, and then looked through the peephole. Denna was staring back through it, her attire rumpled and her expression black.

Squall unlocked the dead bolt and opened the door, dread already starting to crush in.

"They took her," Denna stated as soon as the door was open between them. "They have her in custody." She didn't have to say who. Squall's hand tightened on the doorknob until it was painful but he couldn't make himself let go. The air was being sucked out of his lungs.

"They left this," she snarled and shoved a piece of paper at him. He looked down at it briefly: SeeD's arrest jurisdiction form. "I'm going after them," Denna continued. "If you're going to leave town, you better do it soon. They're already cutting off the major roads." With that she turned and ran for the stairs.

"Denna," he whispered.

She was at the top of the stairs but she stopped and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said, then disappeared down the stairs. He knew what the sorry was meant for. He'd told her a secret. If it freed her sister, Denna was going to spill that secret.

But she had come to warn him, first.

For a moment all he could do was lean on the door and stare at the wall across from him, trying to comprehend what he'd just been told. Then he stumbled back into the apartment, and slammed the door. He looked around the room, at the living room and kitchen just recently furnished again, taking in the warm glow of lights and the smell of food on the stove.

"Chayla" he said roughly. "Go pack some clothes. Now." He turned and hurried to the kitchen, shutting the stove off with jerky motions. When he turned back Chayla was where she'd been, staring at him. "Now, Chayla!" She jumped, her face crumpling in confusion, but ran off to the bedroom, abandoning her book on the floor. Squall ran to the closet and pulled out a few duffel bags.

_**What's wrong? **_Harren asked, pushing into the front of his mind. _**You're saturated in fear.**_

He ignored Harren; he didn't have time for him. The man would just have to watch out of his eyes and figure it out. How long did they have? How long before SeeD closed off all the exits out of town? An hour? A few minutes? Panic and horror began to creep down his spine.

He raced around the living space, collecting all the stashed gil he'd hidden and shoving them into one bag, then grabbed all the weapons he'd hidden in the bedroom closet. He dropped a bag down next to Chayla who was pulling clothes from the bottom dresser drawer and then put the third bag down and started to stuff it will his own clothes.

"Are the bad guys are here?" Chayla asked in a small voice behind him.

Squall moved to the table by the bed and dumped the last of the money and the box with his personal possessions in it on top of his clothes. "Yes. We have to leave now. Grab a few toys and put them with your clothes." He left the bags on the bed and rushed into the bathroom. He grabbed what he could and bought them back to dump into the bag as well. His eyes kept skittering around the room, cataloguing everything he was leaving behind, wondering if any of it would incriminate him. But he didn't have the time to wonder.

Chayla had shoved her bag full of clothes and toys and was trying to pull the blanket off of her bed. Squall swung his two bags onto his shoulder and hurried over. "Time to go," he demanded. Chayla was crying, but he didn't have the time. He grabbed her bag from the floor, her chocobo doll from the ground beside it and then yanked the blanket off the bed. He folded it around her and swung her up into his already full arms.

She hugged him around the neck obediently but cried into his shoulder as he rushed them to the door and yanked it open. He checked his pocket for keys and wallet, and then they were out. He paused on the other side and looked back into the home they'd had for only a few weeks. The home that might have meant the most. Gritting his teeth, he tore himself away from the sight and shut the door. He didn't bother locking it.

At the bottom of the apartment stairs his foot caught on something and he stumbled into the railing. He hissed as it jabbed into his side.

"Are you alright?"

Squall's heart stuttered, wondering if SeeD had already gotten there. He straightened and jerked his eyes towards the voice. It was a man with long red hair. Nobody he knew or remembered. But he'd been gone a long time now.

"Do you need help?" the man asked, taking a step closer.

"No," Squall snapped then took a breath. "No," he repeated in a less harsh tone. "Thank you." He stalked around the man, waiting for something, anything. The man just smiled and stepped back to give him room on the sidewalk. Squall looked him in the eyes, uneasy, then turned and hurried to his car.

He unlocked it and yanked open the back passenger door, dumping all of the bags on the floor and settling Chayla into the car-seat, rushing to get the buckles lined up and clicked in. He tried to be gentle but knew he was scaring her.

He finally got the last buckle in and tugged on it to make sure it was secure. Then he took a second to stop and look at Chayla. "It's going to be okay, Chayla. I'm going to keep us safe, alright?" he wiped away a tear from her cheek, then another from her other cheek. "We just have to be strong." She nodded through her tears. He nodded back and shut the door so that he could run for the driver's side door.

He looked back towards the apartment while he started the car. The red-haired man was still standing there, watching them. But if he'd been searching for them, he would have done something by then. Squall looked away and pulled the car out onto the street.

"Where are we going to go?" Chayla asked with a tremble in her voice.

"I don't know," Squall answered, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "I don't know."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 10: P.O.D – Sleeping Awake


	11. Part 1: Chapter 10

AN: Hello readers! I wanted to apologize for another long delay, and on such a cliff hanger. I never meant to leave this chapter sitting for so long. When I updated last I was still serving in Africa for the Peace Corps. Sadly, just after that last update I became extremely sick and had to be medically evacuated back to the states. I'm mostly recovered now, and am traveling for the summer. Then it's on to trying to find a viable job and living accommodations. It's been a weird year, and it'll probably be a weird rest of the year too. But never fear that I've abandoned this story. This story is my pride and joy.

Please enjoy this next chapter, and if you feel so inclined, let me know what you think of the development so far. :)

**Chapter 10**

_-"What could she have _possibly_ done to you?"-_

Irvine stared around at the empty apartment, infuriation almost blinding him, as he waited for Zell to pick up the phone line.

How in Hyne's name had the two known they were coming?

The whole operation, from the time that they'd arrived in Deling to the time Alina Kristatis's sister had called saying she could lead them to the man and child if they let her sister go, had been just a little over an hour. There was no way that word of their approach could have reached the two in time. And yet, despite the impossibility of it, the home was empty.

"Well?" Zell suddenly said in his ear.

"They're not here," he spit out. "Someone or something tipped them off. Have you closed the city exits off?"

"All of the big ones, but we don't have the manpower to cover the smaller back ways. XU's in the process of mobilizing more squads and sending them out on ships."

Deling was a big city, but someone who knew its terrain could get out in a short amount of time. Even if XU's teams got here as soon as feasibly possible, it might be too late. "Get her to close the borders to the adjacent cities and towns as well," he suggested as he walked from the kitchen to the open living space. Zell sounded an agreement and disconnected.

Irvine shoved the phone into his pocket then crouched down by the couch – the same couch from Timber, he noted - and picked up the children's book that had been left there. A few pages were bent from its angle on the floor, as if it had been dropped in a hurry and forgotten. He smoothed them out and closed the book so that he could see the title. _Conversations with Angels. _

He blinked and held it out a little farther, reading the title again. Angels? What was a sorceress doing reading about angels? He frowned and opened the front of the book. Like he'd hoped there was the usual 'This book belongs to' quote in the front. And scribbled in the space provided was the name Hailey.

Hailey.

The name shocked him for a moment and he didn't understand the reaction, but it came to him a moment later. He'd been expecting the name Ultimecia. A harsh laugh escaped him briefly as he dropped the book on the couch. Had he really expected that _anyone_ would name their child with that poisonous name after what had happened? No. But he hadn't ever given thought to the fact that the face of Ultimecia would have origins in another name.

He didn't like knowing the name of the child.

He turned away from it and moved into the bedroom. If it hadn't been obvious by the food that had been half cooked on the stovetop, it was even clearer in the bedroom that the occupants had left in a rush. Drawers were still pulled open with articles strewn half in and out and the closet doors were thrown wide open.

It was like the condo in Timber – ordinary. Too ordinary. That wasn't what gave him chills however. It was the child accoutrements scattered throughout the place. There was a small toddler bed in the corner of the bedroom with chocobo sheets on it and tiny girl clothes fallen near the dresser. No pictures on the wall, but there was a colored child's drawing of a girl and a dad on the fridge. There were little brightly colored hairbands in the bathroom and small child glassware in the kitchen counters.

This apartment housed a _child._

And, like knowing the name of the sorceress, realizing just how small she was made him want to shy away.

He'd been so focused on the idea of Ultimecia, the black winged woman, that he hadn't really considered what it meant, this mission of theirs. He'd known she was a child. Each witness had been specific about how small she was. It hadn't bothered him before, not when he knew that the child could grow up into the woman.

But, now that he was looking at the child's dolls and picture books? It all seemed so… innocent. There were no signs of magic, no signs of malice anywhere in the apartment. Instead there were toys and drawings and playthings.

Did the child even _know_ what she was capable of?

Sensing movement to his right, he turned from his contemplation of the bedroom. The woman, Denna Kristatis, stopped her approach and crossed her arms, frowning at him. "You said you'd take me to my sister if I showed you the place."

He nodded, although he had no intention of leaving just yet. He needed to get a read on this woman first. Someone had tipped the man off about their presence in Deling and it hadn't been the friend Alina. He was beginning to wonder if Alina's sister knew more about the man and child then she was letting on. "We'll go in a minute. I want to ask some questions first." He gestured to the couches. She glowered fiercely at him, but after a moment of resistance, she turned and found a stiff seat on one of the couches. Irvine sat down opposite her.

"My partner commented that you said you knew nothing of the man and child living here when he spoke to you a few days ago. So how did you know where they resided?"

"I tracked him down through my sister, after your partner's visit," she replied.

He waited, but that seemed to be all she was going to say. "Why?" he asked, trying not to sigh at her lack of willingness to help.

"I wanted to see who Alina was going to such lengths for."

Irvine touched the couch he was sitting on. "You're referring to her bringing him the furniture he left in Timber."

Denna nodded. Not very discreet of the man, he thought. How involved was this Alina? She couldn't know much of anything about the situation if she'd been reckless enough to think that taking the stuff wouldn't leave a trail from Timber straight to Deling. And where did that place this man on the scale of foolishness, for having allowed such a person close enough to do something like that, but not close enough to realize what it would mean?

"And what was your impression of him?" he finally queried.

Denna eyed him. "Tired. Guarded. Cynical. A little callous." She put an arm on the couch arm. "I can't say I blame him if he's being hunted by the likes of you."

"Me?" he repeated, trying to decide if that comment had been meant for him personally or for SeeD in general.

"Is it true that he was supposed to kill his daughter when she was born?"

He pondered that. Then man had known, from the very beginning what he should have done. And yet he hadn't done it. Why? Did he think he could control and direct the child's power for his own benefit? Irvine had thought that before, but now, after seeing the apartment and the homely feel it had, he had to wonder. It was clear that the child didn't want for anything and the half cooked meal on the stove showed dedicated effort towards healthy nutrition. From what he could see here, it seemed like the man truly cared about the child.

What if the man wasn't pretending to be the child's father? What if he really was her father?

Could it be true that he'd somehow stumbled upon Rinoa as she lay dying, with his infant daughter? Could the transfer have been an accident, latching onto the child the moment she got near enough? Had the man and child just been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Maybe he was simply acting out of love?

It didn't excuse his actions. Irvine firmed his mind on that. Love didn't matter, couldn't matter, not when they were dealing with Ultimecia.

"You're not even going to try and explain yourself, are you?" Denna accused and he refocused back on her. "You want to kill that child for something she hasn't even done yet, and you won't even attempt to justify yourself?"

He frowned. Instinctively, he wanted to defend himself against the revulsion he heard in the woman's voice. They weren't going to _kill _the child; they were going to seal her. Except he knew, when he allowed himself to think about it, that the sealing would be just another type of death. There was no use denying it. So he didn't say anything.

SeeD had been the ones to see the future and the devastation there. SeeD were the ones who knew what they were walking into, and who would lead them into it. And to prevent it, to save the world, SeeD was going to have to be the villain. _He_ was going to have to be the villain to people like the woman sitting across from him, because they couldn't understand what they were being saved from.

This was his job; his duty. This was what SeeD had been created for. There wasn't going to be any gratitude or admiration when he was done. But if he could prevent Ultimecia, he could live with that.

Denna stood up abruptly. "I'll be outside. Waiting for you to fulfil your end of the bargain." And with that she left, shoving past the two SeeD guarding the door and stalking out of sight. Irvine didn't let her judgement bother him. She couldn't understand.

No sooner had Denna left then another woman appeared, looking at the two SeeD with a kind of startled concern. She stopped and twisted to face the open doorway, straining to see into the apartment, blocked though she was. "What's happened?" she asked. "What's going on?"

Irvine sighed and got up, striding towards the door. "This is an investigation, ma'am. I'll have to ask you to move along."

She startled and met his eyes with her own wide ones. "An investigation? Are Shane and Chayla alright?"

_Chayla. _Or Hailey?A second name? The name Shane, at least, matched that of the name they'd found on the apartment lease in Timber. He reached the door and touched the shoulder of the SeeDs, motioning them to stand aside. "You're friends of theirs?" he asked.

"Neighbors," the woman corrected, shifting a bag of groceries onto her other hip, and then added "My girls. They play with Chayla on the playground every week." And she shifted a little, glancing down to her right. It was only then that Irvine realized there were two pairs of large eyes staring at him from behind the woman's skirt.

Irvine darted his eyes from the two partially hidden girls to the woman and back again, processing the words furiously. _Playground. Played. _The sorceress was playing with other girls – these girls? Was she as small as these ones were? They'd barely come up to his thighs, if that.

"Your neighbors have gone missing," he explained, tearing his eyes away from the small girls and meeting the mother's eyes. "Do you have any ideas on where they might have gone?"

"Gone?" one of the girls whined suddenly from behind the woman and she turned sharply to frown down at her. "Hush, Hailey. Don't make a scene here."

Irvine glanced down at the little of the girl he could see and then over his shoulder at the book he'd deposited on the couch. He hurried over to it and brought it back. He handed it to the woman without explanation and waited to see what would happen. She glanced at it, puzzled, but then she seemed to recognize it. "How in the world did this get over here?"

"I gave it to Chayla," one of the girls said from behind her mom, leaning out into full visibility for a brief moment. Chayla. That was the Sorceress's name then; for the time being.

"When was this?" the mother demanded.

"Last week. She said her daddy talks to someone called Rin" Irvine felt his heart seize "but that Rin is invisible. I told her it must be an angel, cuz angels are invisible. So I borrowed the book to her."

Irvine didn't hear whatever the mother said in reply. _Rin. _There was no mistaking that nickname. Could it be? Could this little girl be talking about Rinoa? He found himself slightly short of breath. An invisible Rinoa? What did that mean? A ghost? A hallucination?

Did it matter? Whoever this man was, this person taking care of the sorceress, he had a connection to Rinoa. Somehow he knew Rinoa. How? How was that possible? Had she been in contact with him before her death? Had she spoken to him when he found her dying in that stream? A connection must have been made for him to be seeing her now, but how?

"-showed up last month, and he was very closed off. That poor boy. Looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders."

He pulled a card out from his jacket and shoved it at her, motioning to the number under the SeeD emblem. "If you hear anything about their whereabouts, please call this number. We're very worried about their safety."

She agreed, gave him a puzzled look and then started ushering her children away across the hall as the two little girls waltzed around their mother in agitated circles, wanting to know if Chayla was alright and where she was and when they could play again.

Irvine didn't even glance back into the apartment. He stepped out and shut the door, motioning the SeeD to follow him off the property. "Get in," he told Denna when he made for the rental car she was leaning against. "We're going to Balamb."

He'd take her to her sister, like he'd promised. And then he was going to do some digging.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Squall stopped the car as soon as he saw the line of cars halted in the road.

Just like the last three cities he'd tried to get near.

Each metropolitan was stopping any travel in or out and questioning those trying to cross the border. He didn't need to see them to know it was SeeD at each city's borders. And he doubted that any other city he tried to reach wouldn't be closed off as well. They were trying to flush him out, trying to block off all his escape routes.

They were succeeding.

He looked into the review mirror at his daughter, sleeping fitfully and clutching her chocobo doll close, still in the same clothes that she'd been in when they'd fled Deling a day and a half ago. Then he glanced back down at the line of cars in front of him, brows tightening, and turned the wheel, navigating the car to the side and around and gassing it when they were facing the direction they'd come in.

He drove blindly for a while, not really seeing the road, until he caught sight of the dirt road going east towards the mountains. He turned down it then continued for another two miles before he found a thatch of trees to park the car behind. Once there, he turned the engine off and sat back listening to the clicking of the car as it began to cool.

He couldn't take much more of this. The anxiety was tightening around him every hour that went by without a resolution, trying to suffocate him. He was starting to think of crazy ideas: living off the land and building a cabin with his bare two hands; taking his weapons and cutting a swath through the SeeD in his way; begging someone, anyone, to hide them…

Eventually the clicking stopped and he rubbed his face with both hands before opening the car door and stepping out. His whole body ached from being behind the wheel for so long but he ignored it and walked back to open the car door behind his seat.

They'd avoided eating out for fear of being spotted and instead had resorted to eating all meals on the road. Furtive runs into stations to use the restrooms and grab some food was all that Squall had allowed. Accordingly, by this point the car was quite a mess. There were food wrappers and garbage and toys scattered everywhere. It made him wince every time he focused his attention away from the road. It was rubbing his nerves the wrong way. Their whole lives were in chaos at the moment; he couldn't deal with his surroundings being messy as well.

He opened the back door and grabbed an empty plastic bag from the car floor that he could pile the food wrappers and garbage into and did what he could to clean the car up a little, assessing the amount of food left while he was at it. There was enough for a few more days only.

He hadn't realized that _food_ might become inaccessible.

He should have taken a few more precious moments before rushing out of Deling to empty his cabinets. Now, with the towns blocked his only options were the stations that were scattered along the main roads. And the last one he'd tried to stop at had had a SeeD loitering around its perimeter. He'd had to convince some passing civilians to bring back portable gas for the car on their way back through.

The petroleum problem wouldn't kill them. He'd walk and carry Chayla if he had to. But without food they wouldn't get far. He knew this land; it wasn't hospitable enough to support them on its own. Even if he _could_ find enough food off the land, it would be nowhere near enough nourishment for a growing girl.

No, he needed the food offered by civilization. SeeD knew that. They'd starve him out into the open if he didn't figure out what to do and soon. His fist clenched on the bag he was holding as his anxiety surged higher.

He closed his eyes and walked himself through a few breaths, trying to bring the emotions down under control. Then, very slowly and carefully, he tied up the bag of garbage and disposed of it in the bush surrounding them. He'd been dealing with anxiety for years now and knew the best way to deal with the effects was to focus on what he could fix and not what he couldn't. Right now he could fix the cleanliness of his car. So that was what he was going to do.

Once the garbage was taken care of, he dragged Chayla's bag to the open seat and started putting her toys back into it: a couple of books, a set of wooden blocks, a few cloth dolls and her plastic play phone. While he was at it he pulled out a new outfit for her to wear, one that would be more comfortable and durable. Then he set her bag next to her car seat and stepped up into the car so he could sit and lean his forehead on the leather seat in front of him.

He didn't bother going through his own bag. It didn't matter what he'd grabbed or what he hadn't grabbed. They had Alina. Alina could describe him down to every last visible scar. If she didn't, Denna would do it to get Alina out. He reached up and fingered the scar between his eyes. It was only a matter of time before they figured out what was going on; figured out that it was _him_.

The thought terrified him. SeeD would vilify him for defecting and hindering their movements, but it wouldn't change their motive or desire. But if - _when_ \- Irvine, Quistis, Zell and Selphie found out? It would become personal, and he knew firsthand that when things became personal, the game changed completely. They'd stop at nothing to find him.

But if they found him, they'd find Chayla. And he knew he couldn't let that happen, whatever the cost.

This was going to be a whole different kind of chase, he knew. And he had no one to blame but himself. He should have known that letting Alina in would lead SeeD right to him. A friend was a liability; a connection to a world that could trace and follow people. He _had _known, and had tried to keep his distance, but Chayla had opened her arms wide to the woman and he hadn't had the heart to take that away from her. And then Alina had sucked him in too. He didn't even know when things had shifted into friendship, but they had. He'd allowed her in and now he was paying for it. No, _Chayla_ was paying for it. He'd done this to his daughter.

He'd made many mistakes with Chayla, he knew. But if they made it out of this, that was a mistake he'd _never_ make again.

He turned his head and watched Chayla sleep.

He should have moved them the moment he realized that Alina had left a trail to Deling by bringing that furniture. It had been dangerous not to. It had been even _more_ dangerous to not act when Denna had told him Zell was in town looking to speak to Alina. But he'd hesitated.

Alina was good for Chayla. He knew it in his gut. She had been able to give Chayla things that he never could. She knew things that he didn't know and had experienced things he'd never experienced, like board games and zoos and casseroles. She was the only female in Chayla's life and it felt important that she have that for as long as was possible.

So he'd hesitated, allowed himself to get distracted by all the past pain that Harren and Rinoa had dredged up. The hesitation and the distraction had cost them. They could have slipped out of Deling with no one the wiser and already be relocated. Now, instead, they were homeless with nowhere to go.

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. They needed food. They needed a roof over their heads.

If SeeD was doing their job right, there would be no city, town or village overlooked. Squall pulled his hands away from his face and monitored the risings and falling of Chayla's small torso. There was only one city he had any chance of getting into. A city big enough that he might be able to escape into it.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked down at it. It would mean asking for help. It would mean relying on someone else, and giving himself _another_ liability. That had been what had put them in this situation in the first place. His mind screamed danger at him. But he had to face the reality of the situation and the reality was that he needed help.

He glanced over at Chayla one more time and then opened the device. There were no phone numbers programmed into it for safety reasons but he knew the number. He typed it in then hit the dial button before he could second guess himself. It rang for long time, and then cut off, telling him that the person was unavailable. He'd expected that. He ended the call and then sat with the phone in his lap, waiting.

He didn't like it. There was no guarantee that he wouldn't just pull the man down with him when it all crashed down on their heads. But if he could help get them into Esthar, Squall could figure out the rest. If they got into the city, they at least stood a chance of disappearing for a time. Out here, there was no chance at all.

_**Squall**_

Squall flinched and fumbled the phone. He'd almost forgotten about the guardian force still junctioned to him. He'd been aware of its presence in the forefront of his mind the whole first day on the road but then he'd begun to tune the sensation out. Now he felt it again, the pressure behind his eyes, like a headache without the pain.

_What is it?_

_**There is someone here.**_

Squall shivered at the déjà vu feeling the words gave him. It was the same words, the same tone, that Harren had used in Centra, before Squall had opened his eyes to the sight of Kiros. He slid a foot out of the car and put his weight on it as he stood and scanned the clearing, heart rate speeding up at the thought that someone might have gotten near without his knowledge.

_**Someone like me, **_Harren corrected. _**He must have followed you.**_

That made Squall halt his frantic scanning of the area. _A Guardian Force?_

_**He is young. Not long born.**_

_He followed us from Centra?_

_**That is where I first noticed him. **_

Squall had half a mind to tell Harren to leave it be. He had enough to think about as it was. But the other half of his mind was already processing the information and analyzing it, his instincts rising in response to potential danger. Why would a guardian force be following him? And what other guardian force could be free and roaming and _here_? Gilgamesh? One of those qausi-guardian forces? And why? Harren had only attached himself because his Sorcerer had interacted with Squall. What other sorceress had he interacted with?

After Adel there had only been Edea, Ultimecia and Rinoa. Edea had never killed Cid, thus she'd never created a guardian force. Ultimecia's knight would have been from the future, and thus not created yet. And Rinoa… He skewed away from that direction of thought.

Wait. He couldn't forget Larissa. Was this Larissa's guardian force? Or her successor's? That would mean it was still under its Sorceress's will. Was the other Sorceress _watching_ them? And the _other_ sorceress; the third one? Did she or he have a guardian force?

_**I sense no ill will coming from him. **_Harren observed.

_If he is working with Larissa or- _

_**I will talk to him. **_Harren decided, interrupting him. _**Unless he is too young to know the skill. I will rejunction myself afterwards. Try not to resist my entrance this time. I think your resistance last time is what hurt you. **_

A moment later Squall's knees gave way as pressure built up under his skin and then burst out. He staggered back against the car, grabbing at it to stay upright and swore as his skin crawled from the sensation.

There was no time to fully notice the sudden emptiness in his mind or the implications that Harren was leaving and _wanted _to come back, because energy was gathering in front of him, pulling violently on the air until he could see a ball of energy hovering in the air. And in response, another space of air thirty yards away began to condense into something visible. Squall pushed himself against the car as the energy in front of him spread, forming a shape and hardening instantly into substantial form. Just like that, Odin was between him and the other force, astride his monstrous six legged stallion which stomped at the dirt and snorted.

The other guardian force was in the process of forming its corporal body as well: A black body, exoskeletal bone-like armor, red eyes, a face split in half to reveal another face, long whipping tail that forked at the end. It was nothing Squall had ever seen before. It stared at Odin with its blood red eyes once it finished forming, then flickered them past the guardian force to Squall. No, not towards him, towards the car; towards Chayla inside the car.

Before Squall could even move into a protective stance, Odin shifted more fully in front of him, blocking his sight of the other as surely as it was blocking the other's sight of him and Chayla. That only lasted a moment though. Odin leaped forward suddenly, and Squall could see the clearing again. The other guardian force had bent double and was charging on all fours like some giant cat. Odin met it in the center of the clearing, and used his giant sword to block a swipe to his stallion's belly. In response, the other one surged onto its two feet and began a series of attacks and blocks, transitioning from something beast-like to something human-like in an instant.

Feeling a slight vibration against his back he turned to see Chayla, awake and pressed against the glass of the car window, mouthing words at him. He shoved a hand against the door as it began to open, shutting it against her. "Stay in there," he shouted, putting up his other hand in a non-verbal command to stop as well. He kept his hand on the door and twisted halfway back to keep an eye on the struggle between the two foreign forces, worried about crossfire. It was over though. Odin was off his stallion and had one knee in the other's stomach and his sword at its throat. Even as Squall was finishing twisting towards them, Odin's hand shot forward and closed on the throat and both forms disappeared.

Then Odin was junctioning himself, shoving inside Squall's head and bringing the other one with him. Squall groaned against the sudden scream of pain that wanted to screech out, collapsing onto his knees. Seconds later the car door opened and smacked into the back of his head, sending him forward onto his hands.

"_Chayla_," he ground out between clenched teeth as she jumped from the car, landing on his calves painfully before rushing around him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He tried to steady himself as he wrapped once hand around her back.

_Har-ren? _The pressure in his head wasn't lessening. He could feel it shifting, right behind his eyes then away and then back again, sweeping through him in a hot painful rush

_**He is too young. He doesn't know how to speak yet. **_

… _hurts! _He gasped out.

_**He's never junctioned himself to anyone. He doesn't know how or where to contain himself inside you.**_

_Then shove him back out!_

_**His sorceress must have died soon after making him. He doesn't know anything. He doesn't even know what he is. Squall, he needs help. **_

Squall could only groan as the pain surged higher.

_**Contain him Squall. Contain him in your mind. Bring your presence inwards to your subconscious, like before. It will draw his essence to you; contract him into one place. **_

… _Chayla. _

_**She'll be fine. Just a second of your presence in here should be long enough. **_

Squall didn't even know how to do it. But the pain showed no indication of stopping or even lessoning. He tightened his arm around Chayla and _pictured _himself inside the room inside himself.

And just like that, the pain drained away. Unfortunately the feeling of Chayla disappeared as well. He opened his eyes on the blackness that was already forming the shape of his latest apartment. He'd make sure this place was housing the new _guest_ and then he'd be out. This was Harren's mess. He didn't have time to deal with it. Except then his thoughts ground to a stop. There _was _a new presence there: a man, crumpled on the ground before him. He knew the man.

"Seifer?" he gasped out.

The blonde man was curled up in the fetal position, eyes staring blankly before him, not seeming to see anything in front of him. He looked comatose, except that when Harren knelt down next to him and put a hand on a shoulder, the shoulder hunched inward in response.

"He has no clue what's happened to him." Harren observed sympathetically. "Do you recognize him, then?"

Squall took a step forward then stopped, his brain sluggishly trying to put the pieces together. The new guardian force with the bone armor and red eyes; Odin dragging it into Squall's mind; Seifer's presence here; Seifer…

He felt his knees buckle and - _he rolled onto the float and surged to his feet, Gunblade out and up, ready. And found himself meeting the eyes of Seifer Almasy. _

_His childhood friend smirked. "Well, this is how it turned out, huh?" _

_The Sorceress was behind Seifer, languishing on her throne, seemeing unconcerned. He focused on the blonde renegade again. It was clear that he'd have to go through Seifer to get to her. He squared his shoulders and straightened. "So you've become the Sorceress' lap dog?"_

_The smirk vanished to be replaced with a scowl. "I prefer to be called her knight."_

"Hyne's blood," Squall breathed out.

"Edea's knight?" Harren asked

No. "… Ultimecia's."

He couldn't… he couldn't deal with this right now. He couldn't think about the implications. He just couldn't. He wrenched away from it, from Harren and from the room and found himself staring at dirt, curled around Chayla.

He let out a choked breath and sat up, hugging Chayla to him tightly, distantly hearing her speak but not comprehending any of it. The thoughts piled in unwanted, shoving him back and forth between each of them. He didn't want the extra thoughts, the extra problem, but his mind didn't stop processing it. His mind was so tuned to analyzing any threat that he couldn't leave it behind, even when he tried.

Seifer hadn't been seen since the war. Squall had always assumed he'd gone into hiding to avoid facing the consequences of his actions. He'd never taken Seifer's claim that he was a knight seriously, especially after he became a knight himself and saw what it took to create that bond. But Harren had said that devotion and blood was enough. And if Seifer was here, now… then his posturing hadn't been an act. He'd been knight to Ultimecia. Did Ultimecia not have a knight in the future? Could she bond with another because she was in the past? Or was it possible to have more than one knight? Had Seifer succumbed to the fate that Squall himself had escaped?

The answer to that was sitting there in his head. No matter how much he wanted to explain it all away with excuses and psychosis, he couldn't refute the presence of Harren in his mind. The man knew too much, was aware of too much to not be real. And if Harren was real, then Seifer's presence was real. And if Sefier's presence was real?

Then Seifer Almasy was now a guardian force. Ultimecia must have killed him before she died.

Alright. He could accept that, maybe. It made sense in this world that _didn't_ make sense. But why had Seifer been following them? Ultimecia was dead. What would-

He looked down at Chayla, who was fiddling with the buttons on his shirt, then jerked his eyes away. No. No, he wasn't going to go down that road. Seifer had been his childhood friend. Perhaps he had just sensed someone familiar and followed that. Yes, that made sense.

There was a migraine creeping in. He could feel it at the edges of his consciousness, pounding in like nail beneath a hammer. He dug his phone out of his pocket and checked the screen. No call back yet.

He gripped it and willed Laguna to call back soon.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina jerked upright when the cell door creaked open. She twisted around on the thin bed and looked towards the opening, dread surging through her. It was the blonde man with the tattoo on his face. "You're sister is here," he said and opened the door wider.

She swallowed and stood up, self-consciously straightening her shirt. The man made no move to restrain her as she approached him, but then, other than that first time when they'd dragged her from her home no one had handled her roughly. They'd been too busy combing Deling for Shane.

She wanted to ask if they'd caught him. But she didn't. If the answer was a yes, it might cripple her. This was her fault. If they caught Shane, it was on her.

She waited as the man closed the cell back up and then followed when he led her down the hallway past more empty cells, keeping quiet, until they came to a room. When the man opened the door and she saw Denna sitting at one of the chairs, she burst into tears and rushed in. Her sister met her halfway and swept her into her arms.

They let her cry into Denna's neck until she could get herself under control again. When she finally pulled away and swiped a hand under her eyes, Denna put her hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "It's going to be okay, Lena. Alright? It's going to be okay."

Alina nodded and glanced to the side, at the central table. The blonde man was sitting down behind it, setting a pad of paper down in front of him with a pencil. There was a mirror behind him, one she was sure was actually a window for other people to look in. Fluorescent lighting gave the room a clinical feel.

This was an interrogation room.

Denna motioned for her to sit down in one of the chairs, and Alina did so slowly. She looked at Denna, wondering if… After all, the blonde man had said that her sister had agreed to lead his partner to Shane's residence in return for seeing her. She hadn't realized that Denna knew where it was, but she couldn't say she was all that surprised. Denna had a way of getting what she wanted, when she wanted it. But if Denna had been in Shane's apartment, she might know what had happened there and if Shane had been caught.

Denna seemed to see the question in her eyes, even before she could figure out how to ask it, because she shook her head ever so slightly. Alina sagged in relief.

Turned out the relief was short lived.

"Ms. Kristatis?" the blonde across the table began, his eyes steady on her. "I need to impart to you the seriousness of your cooperation here." He waited until Alina nodded and then continued in a firm tone. "You've been supporting and abetting a felon, something that could give you two to five years in prison."

Alina closed her eyes. Oh god, it was true then? Shane was a criminal?

"We understand that this may have been done under misassumption; that you may not have been aware of the nature of what you were doing. We are prepared to clear you of all charges." Alina snapped her eyes open and stared at the man. "If," he continued "you answer _everything_ asked truthfully."

She blew out a breath and clenched her hand into her palm under the table. That was it then. She would have spill it all, cheat on the friendship she'd worked so hard to get, betray Shane and Chayla. So that she could stay safe while they ran for their lives.

"What kind of criminal is he?" she asked faintly, not looking at either of the other two people in the room.

"National," the man answered. "He has endangered the whole world with his actions."

Alina squeezed her eyes shut. Hyne's mercy, what had she gotten herself into.

She thought back to his secrecy, his defensiveness, the impenetrable wall he'd put between himself and the world. Hadn't she just been wondering if she should get out, before SeeD had shown up? She'd begun to realize it then, that she might not like what she found if she dug deeper. It had started to be clear that, underneath the surface, something had not been right.

Why!? Things had been fine in Timber. Things had been normal. It hadn't been until Shane moved to Deling so suddenly that things had begun to change. Suddenly there was a mystery to be solved. Suddenly things had seemed desperate. Suddenly Shane was letting slip expressions she had never seen on him before.

And Suddenly it became clear that there was something going on that was beyond her ability to deal with. And yet, she still felt protective of him; of him and Chayla.

Chayla. What would happen to Chayla? Where would she go if Shane was taken in? "His daughter," she said, looking up. "He said that if anything happened to him, his father would take Chayla. Will you make sure she's sent there? Will you make sure that she's taken care of?"

The blonde man winced for some reason but he nodded. "We'll make sure she's taken care of."

She bit her lip and looked away again, meeting Denna's eyes next.

Denna put a hand on her shoulder. "You have to take care of yourself, Alina. You can't help him anymore."

She sucked in a shaky breath. No she couldn't. She could only help herself. That was very clear. Shift her thinking. That's what she needed to do. She couldn't do this if she still felt something for the friendship Shane and she had had. She had to block that, or get rid of it.

Denna was right. She had to worry about herself.

Did she… did she want to go to prison for Shane? No. She felt protectiveness for him, but what was that worth? He'd acted like her friend but in reality he'd never truly been her friend, had he? Friends trusted each other. You couldn't keep such a big secret from someone and truly trust them. Had Shane ever truly trusted her? What had she been to him?

Swallowing a suddenly dry throat, she nodded once. The blonde man pushed a tape recorder to the center of the table and clicked it on. He picked up his pencil and looked at her. "State your name, please."

"Alina Kristatis," she whispered, then said it louder when the blonde motioned that she was being too quiet.

"Please name the man and child who were you're neighbors in Timber."

"Shane and…. and Chayla." Her sister's hand found hers under the table and gripped it reassuringly.

"Please describe the child."

"She… she is…" She closed her eyes, feeling tears leaking out despite herself. Hyne this was going to be harder than she realized. "She's four years old, about three and a half feet tall. She has black hair and grey eyes." She opened her eyes and saw the blonde man motion for her to elaborate more. "She… likes potatoes. She likes to play with her dolls." _Lose yourself in it_, she told herself. Don't think about it. "Her favorite book is 'The Knight's Plight'. She adores anything chocobo. She likes to braid her father's hair. She makes up songs to sing when she's bored. She can count to twenty and recite her ABCs. She's the only one that can get Shane to laugh."

The blonde cut her off with a raised hand. "That's fine. How long have you known the two of them?"

"Two years."

"Have you ever seen the child act out in aggression?"

Alina blinked, derailed from her single focus of not thinking. "What?"

"Have you ever seen the child lash out at anyone in anger?" the SeeD repeated.

Alina shook her head in bewilderment. "Of course not."

"No temper tantrums?"

"Of course she has temper tantrums; she's a child. But… she'd never _hurt _anyone."

She couldn't tell if he believed her or not. Why in Hyne's name wouldn't he? What could make him think that about a little girl? About Chayla? And that's when she realized that all his questions had been focused solely on Chayla. He had asked nothing about Shane. He didn't even seem to be interested in Shane.

She shrank back in her chair in horror. "Oh… my god!" she whispered, staring at the man.

"Alina?" Denna asked sharply as the man regarded her with a blank face.

'You're…. you're… not after Shane at all, are you? You're after Chayla?" she whispered. He didn't deny it, just looked faintly uneasy. "You said… you said Shane… that his actions…" she gasped, the words getting stuck in her throat.

"By keeping the girl alive, he has committed treason," the man replied, his face emotionless.

She gaped at him, as her whole world tipped upside down.

They were after _Chayla_?

No. Chayla had always just been an unwilling victim in her father's past catching up with him. Shane had been the questionable one, the possible criminal in her sister's eyes, the misjudged sufferer in hers. The one with the secrets. To learn that Shane wasn't even the focus of the pursuit he was running from? That he had… had been _protecting_ his daughter this whole time?

And they had tricked her into betraying him.

She stood up in a rush. "You… you monsters!" she screamed, backing away from the table. "You monsters!"

Denna jumped up out of her chair too but didn't seem to know what to do. She glanced from Alina to the man who had risen in response to her screams. "Ms. Kristatis," he started to say, eyes full of something she could identify, but she shook her head furiously and backed even further away. All she could see in her head was the image of Shane's gaunt looking face and haunted eyes, Chayla's sad eyes and neutral expressions. Oh god, Chayla knew. She knew that it was her that was being hunted, didn't she? She knew.

"What could shehave _possibly_ done to you?" She hissed at the man. "She's _four _years old!"

"She's dangerous," the blonde stated.

"_Dangerous_?" Alina's voice rose an octave. "Dangerous!" She turned her back on him blindly. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't look into his eyes with the knowledge that he wanted to… wanted to seize a little girl and do…

Oh god, what would they do if they got their hands on Chayla?

This was Bethania and her sister all over again. Would they shoot Chayla down like they had Sarah? Would they kill her? She flinched as the memory of the sounds of bullets and screams engulfed her. Oh _Hyne. _

She found herself facing a corner. "Ms. Kristatis." She shook her head widely. She didn't want to listen to any excuses, any justification. She covered her ears with her hands and huddled in the corner, refusing to listen, refusing to look away from the wall.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It had been a while since Selphie had seen Zell; really seen Zell. They'd all been so focused on their mission, on the absolute desperateness of it that she felt like they'd all lost each other in the process. Quistis was off being a scientist somewhere else; Irvine was marking himself out to be the unaffected, ruthless leader, and Zell was shutting himself off the world – pulling away in bewilderment because he couldn't understand why it had hurt him so much.

She could see him doing it, there in that room as the woman baptized him as a monster with her tears. He was pulling away, hurt and confused and wounded.

Zell had never truly been cut out for their line of work, Selphie knew. His soul was too innocent. But his connection to them, to her and Irvine and Squall and Quistis, had drawn him to them, even back when he couldn't remember why. It had drawn him into SeeD where a strong mind and strong coping skills were required.

Quistis coped by relying on her logic. Irvine coped with womanizing and sex. She had her optimism. But Zell… he'd coped by finding a leader he could follow and imitate. That leader had been Squall, and when Squall had died, Zell had lost his footing. And he had yet to find a replacement. She wondered if he ever would. It was so much harder when the leader had been your best friend.

Selphie placed a hand on the locket she wore around her neck as she watched Zell slowly stand up from the table while the woman cried in the corner and her sister stood protectively over her. Zell's shoulder's tightened and then he turned for the door.

She rushed towards him as soon as he stepped into the observation room and closed the door behind himself, and threw her arms around him. "No, Zell. No. You're not a monster," she whispered. When all he did was hug her back gently and sigh, she knew he didn't believe her.

"Give her a few minutes, then go back in," XU said from deeper in the room.

Selphie twisted and threw a dark glance towards the woman. She'd argued against sending Zell in there in the first place. Irvine was much more suited to this kind of thing than Zell was. But Irvine was nowhere to be found and XU had overridden Selphie's objections.

"Commander," Zell acknowledged. "Have any of the border patrols reported in?" he asked, stepping away from Selphie.

"None," XU answered brusquely.

Zell sighed and looked through the observation window at the two women. "What about-" but at that moment the door was pushed open and Irvine strode in. Selphie almost reprimanded him then and there for making his partner deal with the interrogation all on his own, but then she saw the wild look in his eyes.

He looked around the room and caught site of Selphie and Zell near the second door. "Can I speak to you two?" he asked, and she could hear the strained quality in the tone, see the alarm in his eyes as he glanced sideways at XU. XU waved a hand in annoyed dismissal and Irvine beckoned them out into the hallway outside of the room.

Selphie shared a glance with Zell as they followed the man out of the room and down the hall a little ways. "What is it?" she asked when Irvine finally stopped and turned back towards them.

"Zell," he said, instead of answering her. "Where's that drawing. The one you're always looking at."

Zell frowned but pulled a piece of folded paper out of his pocket. Selphie watched, puzzled, as Zell unfolded it carefully, almost reverentially, and handed it over reluctantly. Irvine took it and stared down at the drawing intently.

"Irvine," Selphie said. "What's going on? Why are you acting so spooked?"

He looked up at her, then put a hand to his head. "I… I must be going mad."

'What do you mean?" Zell asked, brows furrowed. He looked from the drawing to Irvine and back again.

"That woman," Irvine interrupted. "Have you spoken with her yet?"

"He has," Selphie replied sharply before Zell could shrug it off. "And you know he shouldn't have had to do that on his own. What were you thinking?"

"She'll be able to describe him," Irvine muttered.

"Irvine!" Selphie shouted, harsher than she intended. She winced and put a hand on his arm in apology. "Irvine," she repeated, softer this time. "You need to tell us what's going on. What's wrong?"

Irvine looked into her eyes and she saw him swallow hard before speaking. "What if Squall isn't dead?" he whispered.

Selphie reared back, recoiling while Zell made a choked sound and whirled away. "No, wait," Irvine pleaded, reaching for the man with his hand but not making contact. "Here me out."

"Have you totally lost it?" Selphie demanded. "Why would you _say_ something like that?"

"There was no body. Zell," he called, casting his eyes passed Selphie towards his blonde partner. "We never found a body."

Zell turned back to look at Irvine over his shoulder. "You know why we didn't," he said roughly.

"What if we were wrong?"

"You saw the memory! You said you saw him being dragged off; that he died before those things could ea…" but Zell couldn't say it. He gagged to a halt.

Irvine pressed both palms to his head and hunched his shoulders a little. "I know," he croaked. "I know. But…"

"But what," Selphie asked when Zell didn't.

"He sees Rinoa. He sees her ghost. Who else could…?" Irvine trailed off, but it sounded like he was saying it to himself more than anything. It certainly didn't make any sense to her or to Zell. Zell turned abruptly and staggered away, likely going off to tend to the wound that Irvine had just ripped the scab off of. Irvine watched him go then turned hopeless eyes on Selphie. "What if it is?" he pleaded.

Selphie shook her head. "Go lie down, Irvine," she said as gently as she could, before heading back towards the integration room. It was beyond clear to her that the pressure of the mission was getting to Irvine and Zell. And she knew where most of that pressure was coming from.

She and XU were going to have a _chat_.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Laguna hurriedly closed the door to his bedroom suites, already pushing the redial button on his phone. He held it up to his ear and turned his back to the door, facing the room but not entering it.

The line rang for an awfully long time and Laguna was starting to sweat when it clicked on and a breath of air ghosted across it to his ear. "Laguna?" Squall asked uncertainly, and Laguna's heart wrenched at the frightened tone.

"I'm here," he answered in a rush, relieved and heartbroken all at once. "I'm here." _Oh, Squall._

He'd known as soon as SeeD showed up at his borders this morning that something had happened. He'd abandoned his work and instead fruitlessly searched the news stations and webpages for any mention of what had occurred; for anything. There had been nothing. There was no clue as to what had happened; only that something had happened.

He'd kept his mobile phone clutched in his hand all day long, wanting to call the one number programmed into it but worrying about the safety of the action. What if the phone had fallen into the custody of other hands? What if the ringing of a call gave away a hidden location at the wrong time? No, it had been too risky. But he hadn't been willing to let go of the death grip he had on the device. So even though he'd had meetings that he couldn't reschedule, the moment the phone received the call, he knew.

He hadn't called the meeting to a close immediately. What if it wasn't Squall on the other end, calling? Even though that was the purpose of the two phones - to be a link between the two of them - Squall had _never_ used it to call Laguna. He'd answered Laguna's calls readily enough and had sent that one picture, but he'd made it plain early on that he wouldn't be using the device to initiate anything from his end.

So, either Squall was desperate enough to go back on his word, which implied disaster, or – even more frightening – Squall no longer had sole possession of the phone, which implied complete catastrophe. Either way, Laguna had felt frozen in his presidential chair as emotions and implications he couldn't name coursed through him.

Did he call back with the possibility that it was a trap? How much would he give away by calling, if the caller was SeeD looking for clues? It didn't seem likely that they had Squall in custody, not if they were manning every border between here and Deling. But to justify that much manpower, they had to have come close. Just _how_ close?

In the end the possibility that it might be Squall on the other line, alone and hurt, had decided him. He'd call and stay silent, see who was on the other line first. And if the call was traced back to him he'd come up with some excuse, something to explain it away.

All those fears washed away the second Squall spoke.

Only to be replaced by new fears. "Squall," he whispered, knowing he shouldn't say the name but not being able to stop himself. "Squall, what happened?"

It took a moment, but when the response came it was full of self-recrimination. "They took Alina."

Alina. That was the name of the woman who had wormed her way into his son's and granddaughter's lives. Squall's friend. Kiros had described her to him, as well as his observations about her interactions with his family. Laguna recognized friendship when he saw it. Despite Squall's reclusiveness and secrets, he'd found a friend in that woman.

And now she'd been taken from him.

Laguna closed his eyes and made his way to the large bed in the back of the room so that he could sit on the edge of the mattress. He'd been wrong. This was worse than just a disaster.

The implications of the woman being in SeeD's hands and what that entailed for them all – that was a disaster. The fact that Squall and Chayla were homeless and on the run once again – that was a disaster. The fact that Squall had allowed himself to open up a little and accept someone into his life, after all that he'd been through and then to have it burn him, have it rebound and put him and Chayla right into the path of danger – that was going to be worse than a disaster.

Squall was never going to open up again after this.

"Where are you?" he asked softly. "Did you get out?"

"Yes," Squall said, his voice tight. "But…" he stopped and Laguna could practically hear the panic seeping through the phone line. "They've blocked off all the cities." His son strangled the words out, each syllable obviously a struggle for him. "I… I don't know what to do."

That was all the permission Laguna needed to lead into the proposal he'd formulated as soon as he'd realized that Squall and Chayla had been run out of their home for a third time. "Come here."

"I was hoping you might be able to help me get into Esthar," Squall started but Laguna interrupted him.

"No. Come _here. _To me."

There was silence on the other line, as if Squall couldn't believe what he was hearing. Laguna waited for the answer with bated breath. What he was proposing was dangerous, yes. He knew that. It was one thing for Squall to get into Esthar. It was a completely different thing for him to get into the Presidential Palace.

"No," Squall breathed.

"Squall, let me protect you. Please."

"No, Laguna," Squall repeated. "Did you hear me? They _have_ Alina. She'll describe me. They'll figure out it's me. I'd lead them straight to you."

"How? The Squall Leonhart they knew never had a father." Laguna countered, despite how the words wounded him.

"But Shane Guile did. Alina knows that. And if SeeD figure out that _I'm_ Shane, they'll put the pieces together."

"It would be my word against theirs. No one else knows."

"Ellone knows."

Laguna felt his stomach plummet. Hyne's tears, _Ellone_.

Of course Ellone knew. Hell, she'd been the one to key Laguna onto it in the first place. He'd almost forgotten. She'd never said anything after that one phrase to him five years ago, not to him, not to Squall, and not to Squall's friends after she thought they'd all lost him. Why?

More importantly, would she say anything now, if asked? If she found out that Squall was alive? Would she disclose the information to SeeD if she thought it would help them find her adoptive brother? Who was he kidding. Of course she would.

Laguna gripped the bedpost next to him, letting the design imprint itself on his palm. "Let me worry about Ellone," he said. "Right now, all I'm concerned about is getting you and Chayla to a safe place. And the safest place, _right now,_ is here where no one will expect you to be. By the time anyone comes asking, I'll already have you placed somewhere safe."

"I can't let you do this," Squall argued.

"You can, and you will," Laguna ordered firmly. "I am not going to stand here and allow these people to hunt you both down like the criminals you're not. You are going to come here and let me use my resources to help you."

And having said what he'd been waiting to say for years, Laguna sat back and waited.

"Okay," Squall whispered after an eternity. "Alright."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Alina didn't know how long she and Denna sat in the corner of that room. She'd lost track of time early on, drifting in a haze of hurt and confusion. Hurt that Shane had never said anything to her. And hurt by the cruelty of the world they all lived in. It must have been a while however, because when the door opened again there was someone new at the door; a petite brunette woman in a yellow sweater and slacks and two cups of something in her hands. She extended those slightly towards them. "Tea?"

Alina stared at the woman in distrust. Was this the bad cop, good cop strategy? Did they think she would help them if they plied her with smiles and comforting beverages?

The woman made her way around the table towards them until she was standing in front of them and then she folded her legs and sat down right there on the floor. Denna took the proffered cup, but Alina shook her head. The woman shrugged and set it aside. "My name is Selphie," she said gently.

Alina eyed her. "Are you SeeD as well?"

The woman nodded and supported a hand on one of her knees. "Yes."

Alina looked her in the eyes. "So you're involved in hunting down this little girl?"

The woman nodded, and Alina felt sickened by the nonchalance in those eyes. She looked away.

"Alina, right?" the woman asked, but didn't seem to need confirmation because she continued without pause. "Do you know what SeeD does, Alina? What the organization was built for?"

Immediately an intercom blared to life. "Ms. Tilmitt," a female voice crackled, a clear warning in the voice.

Alina jerked her eyes back around, startled, in time to see the woman wave a hand indifferently at the mirror behind them without looking. She stared at Alina intently. "Do you know why SeeD was created?" she repeated. Alina didn't care. They were all monsters. She crossed her arms. The woman spoke, voice soft and confidential. "SeeD was created to protect the world from Sorceresses."

Alina's arms tightened around herself as a chill ran down her spine.

"Do you remember the last war against Sorceress Edea and Sorceress Ultimecia?" Alina curled her fingers and nodded. Of course she knew. Who could have _not_ known when it looked like the world had been about to end, with monsters falling from the sky and every army in the world mobilizing. All because of one woman. One Sorceress.

The female SeeD stared at her hard, her. "This child - this Chayla; she's a sorceress."

It didn't process at first. She heard Denna's breath catch next to her, heard the words echoing in her head a second and a third time. But they didn't make sense. She stared at the woman, trying to figure out what the words meant, trying to figure out why they had made her stomach drop into her pelvis. And then the meaning crashed down on her.

"No," she denied, shaking her head.

The woman seemed to expect that. Her features softened and she gazed at Alina carefully. "We caught wind of her first in Esthar, about two years ago when a witness said they saw her wings. That was right before they moved to Timber. Then, about a month ago, someone else in Timber saw her with wings."

"No," Alina rejected again. "No. _No_."

The woman talked over her protests. "The witness we talked to in Timber said the girl had black hair and grey eyes and that the man had black hair, brown eyes and a scar down his cheek. She saw the girl sprout wings. She gave us a feather that was left behind."

Alina just kept shaking her head, back and forth. No. No, it couldn't be. This was just another trick of theirs.

Except…

Except Shane never let Chayla out of his sight. He never took her to daycare; never allowed her to play with friends without his presence; never let Alina babysit her except that once just recently, and then only for an hour; never took a job that would tie him down anywhere or cause him to be away from her for more than a short time.

And except that Chayla sometimes seemed much older than the four year old that she was. She was calm when she shouldn't be, and angry when she had no need to be; she didn't like stories about princesses in distress, only stories about heroines saving themselves or others; she _knew _she was being hunted.

The blonde man's words from earlier echoed in her head. _She's dangerous._

Alina stared down at her hands. "I… I didn't… I…" She pressed her hands against her eyes, applying pressure. "Chayla," she sobbed out. 'Oh god, Chayla." It was like a puzzle piece, fitted in, and suddenly everything made sense - the secrets, the running, the hiding.

"She's never hurt anyone," she whimpered, as if that changed anything.

"She will," came the reply.

"But not all Sorceresses are evil, right? There's no guarantee-"

"We can't risk it."

Alina wiped at her eyes and looked up. "What are you going to do to her? You're not going to kill her are you?"

The woman shook her head vehemently. "Of course not. Just a sealing. It won't even hurt."

Alina glanced aside, trying to blink through her tears. "What about Shane…" she asked. "She's his daughter. You can't blame him for… for wanting to protect her."

"There's a possibility that that man isn't Chayla's real father," the woman stated. "He knows what she is. He could have alternative motives to raising her."

That put Alina's hackles up. She frowned. "No. You're wrong there," she disagreed.

"Sometimes our judgement can be-"

"You haven't seen them together," Alina interrupted. "He's devoted to her. And they have the same mannerisms. She has his eyes, for Hyne's sake."

The woman put a hand up in a placating motion. "Okay," she said. "It's possible that they are indeed father and daughter."

Oh god, Alina thought. This wasn't real was it? "You don't have to seal her," she blurted out abruptly. "Just let Shane raise her for now. She hasn't done anything yet, right? Can't you just let her be until… until you can't? Why does it have to be now!? Shane can protect her. Shane can keep her safe."

"What makes you think he can?"

"She listens to him. And he knows how to fight. He's been in battles before."

"Which battles?"

"I don't know which ones," Alina replied, throwing her hands up in the air. "But he has all these scars to prove it - one on his right cheek; a few on his arms; a bunch of little ones on his hands; one between his eyes. That has to mean something, right?"

The woman blinked at her owlishly. "I'm… I'm sorry? What was that last one?"

"A scar between his eyes. It slants downward from right to left."

The woman's hand went to the locket around her neck and she gripped it tightly. She exhaled a slow shaky breath and locked wide eyes on Alina's. "Are you… certain?"

"Yes," Alina replied slowly. "Of course I'm sure. Why?"

"I… used to know a man with a scar just like that," was the distant reply as eyes went unfocused.

Denna shifted and spoke up for the first time. "Shane knows the blonde man."

Those eyes shot towards Alina's sister in an instant. "What makes you say that?"

"I went it see him after the blonde knocked on my door looking for Alina the first time. When I described the man to Shane, he reacted. Looked like he'd seen a ghost."

"It couldn't be," the woman whispered to herself. "It… couldn't."

"Ms... Tilmitt?' Alina asked, hesitantly, remembering the name vaguely from the beginning of their conversation.

"No body," she muttered, staring at Alina. "No… body." All of the sudden, she twisted towards the wall length mirror. "Find Zell and Irvine," she barked, before twisting back to stare at Alina. "I'm going to show you a picture," she said slowly. "I want you to tell me if you recognize him."

Alina nodded and watched in uneasiness as the woman pried her fingers away from the locket around her neck and opened it very carefully. She looked down at what was inside it and swallowed then took it off her neck and turned it to face Alina. There were two pictures, one on each side of the open locket interior, one of a woman and one of a man. She tapped the picture of the man briefly. "Have you seen this man?"

Alina leaned forward and looked at the picture. It was an old photo, in black and white, but the face was unmistakable. "That's Shane," she answered.

"No." And the voice was breathless, missing something vital. "That is Squall Leonhart."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Until the End Playlist, Song 11: RED – Run and Escape


End file.
